As part of House of Ruth’s mission to contribute to social change, we began our ambitious Montclair Domestic Violence Prevention Project in 2001 with government funding secured through 2005.  House of Ruth’s overall goal for this program was to strengthen, enhance, and facilitate “a broad base social movement towards changes in attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions, awareness, and intolerance on the issue of domestic violence.”  We accomplished this through a collaborative, community-driven provision of services, facilitated by a partnership with the Ontario-Montclair School District and the Montclair Community Collaborative (MCC), a network that includes representatives from police and fire departments, hospitals, religious organizations and public health officials.

Through the Montclair Domestic Violence Prevention Project, we worked to:

• increase community knowledge of domestic violence including appropriate responses and intervention skills.
• increase ability of law enforcement and medical personnel to respond to victims in crisis situations.
• engage a multi-disciplinary and culturally representative cross section of the community in developing a community-specific response to domestic violence issues and to establish an additional advisory group consisting of teens and adolescents from the community.
• collaborate with the school district to develop a set of policies that may include the mandatory use of dating violence/healthy relationship curriculum and the training of peer leaders on issues of dating violence.
• coordinate an effort between schools and community advisory boards in the enhancement of the schools’ violence-free policy to include a “zero tolerance” of interpersonal abuse and violence.

House of Ruth has developed a comprehensive school-based program that educates about and promotes healthy relationships.  This begins with “Hands Are For Helping” in the early primary grades. For middle school students we present a two-day program on Bullying and Teasing, a painful source of trauma and alienation for some children.  In high school, our program on Teen Dating Violence emphasizes healthy relationships and conflict resolution skills.

House of Ruth staff members have also met with various parent groups, social service agencies, and law enforcement agencies in Montclair and Ontario to increase awareness of domestic violence as a family tragedy and costly social problem.  House of Ruth also works closely with MCC member organization Por La Vida to increase awareness of the domestic violence and its negative consequences for the Latina community.