March 14, 2017 – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other Harvard schools are partnering with the nonprofit organization Saving Promise to stop domestic violence. Through a new Learning Lab based at Harvard, launched in early 2017, researchers and students will work to create a movement to promote intimate partner health. Efforts will include developing targeted research to inform prevention strategies, engaging key influencers, and leveraging innovations in technology and the arts for advocacy and awareness.
Harvard Chan Dean Michelle Williams, who is leading the effort at the University, told the Washington Post that the Learning Lab is a way to “change the narrative from managing victims of violence to preventing violence in the first place.”
In the March 13, 2017, article, Williams said that she was inspired to get involved by Saving Promise’s founder L.Y. Marlow, who started the organization to help ensure that her granddaughter didn’t become her family’s fifth generation of domestic violence victims.
Williams sees domestic violence as a public health threat. A third of American women will experience it at some point in their lifetimes.
The health effects of domestic violence goes beyond bruises and broken bones, Williams said. Women are more likely to be killed by an intimate partner or family member than a stranger. Domestic violence has also been linked to a host of health problems including asthma, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic headaches. And it places a heavy burden on communities, law enforcement, health care systems, and the global economy.
Read Washington Post article: Can a grandmother working with Harvard save girls like Promise from domestic violence?
Learn more
Domestic Violence: A Hidden Public Health Threat That Affects Businesses (Huffington Post op-ed by Dean Williams)
Preventing Domestic Violence Is Everyone’s Business (Huffington Post op-ed by Dean Williams)
The Domestic Violence Crisis: Mobilizing the Public and Private Sectors (The Forum at Harvard Chan School)