Our overarching goal is to ensure that all survivors of domestic violence and their children who are experiencing abuse-related trauma and/or living with mental illness can access the services that they may need to enhance their safety and well-being.

Purpose

• Cultivate a deeper understanding of the mental health and advocacy needs of survivors of domestic violence and their children
• Focus attention on the impact of trauma on individual healing and social change
• Encourage and facilitate collaboration among many partners including:
  • domestic violence agencies
  • mental health professions
  • disability rights organization
  • community-based service providers
  • state domestic violence coalitions
  • state agencies
  • national and state policy organizations  

Strategies 

• Promoting dialogue between domestic violence and mental health organizations, policy-makers, and survivor/advocacy groups about the complex intersections of domestic violence, trauma and mental health and current strategies to enhance work in this area
• Building capacity among local agencies, state domestic violence coalitions, and state mental health systems
• Providing recommendations on policies, practices, and collaborative models that will positively impact the lives of survivors and their children, particularly in relation to trauma and mental health.  

 
The Center is committed to developing comprehensive, accessible, and culturally-relevant responses to the range of trauma-related issues faced by domestic violence survivors and their children; to promoting advocacy that is survivor-defined and rooted in principles of social justice; and to eradicating the social and psychological conditions that contribute to interpersonal abuse and violence across the lifespan.

 
The Center was established in October 2005, through a multi-year grant from the Administration on Children, Youth & Families, Administration on Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Grant # 90EV0349) to the Domestic Violence and Mental Health Policy Initiative (DVMHPI)¸ a Chicago-based project that works to address the unmet mental health needs of domestic violence survivors and their children and the traumatic effects of abuse across the lifespan.