Southwest Rural Family Violence Project
Funder: US Dept of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women
Project Timeline: October 2007 to September 2011
Total Amount Funded: $850,000
Project Goals: Identify, address, and prevent violence in families in the rural areas of Dona Ana County. This project has two goals:
1) to identify and map the areas of Dona Ana County that have a high incidence of violence in families and domestic violence risk factors, and
2) to target the areas identified in goal 1 and implement a prevention curriculum and intervention services.
GOAL ONE
Goal One involves using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to compile information regarding incidents of family violence. Through using GIS to spatially represent family violence incidences in Dona Ana County the project will be able to pin-point "hot spots," that is places in the county that have a greater than average number of incidents, and areas where people have a higher than average risk of victimization. Finding the "hot spots" will enable the project to target prevention and education services in rural areas of Dona Ana County.
GOAL TWO
Goal Two targets prevention and outreach services to the communities identified as hot spots in Goal 1, and includes the development of a training curriculum for use in the communities. A team of three social work students from NMSU, a social worker hired by NMSU and placed at the county, and an Outreach Worker hired by La Casa provides outreach and education regarding domestic violence and limited case management and referral services for those experiencing domestic violence in the rural areas of the county.
