About the Program - Project Harmony - Domestic Violence Community Partnership Program

Project Harmony

Brief Information about "The Domestic Violence Community Partnership Program"

Project Harmony is an American nongovernmental, nonprofit organization that arranges educational and professional programs in the Newly Independent States ( NIS) and the United States. In 1998, Project Harmony received a grant from the United States State Department to administer "The Domestic Violence Community Partnership Program." This is a two-year program taking place in Petrozavodsk and Volgograd, Russia; and in Odesa and Lviv, Ukraine. In 1999, Project Harmony received another grant to continue the program through August 2001 and to extend the locations to include the cities of Irkutsk, Russia; Uzhgorod, Ukraine; and Tbilisi, Georgia.

There are three phases in "The Domestic Violence Community Partnership Program." During the first two phases, groups of American specialists travel to Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia two times to administer seminars on the topic of domestic violence for regional specialists in law enforcement, healthcare, education, human rights, and social work.

Goals of Phase I:

To raise community awareness and distribute information about the problem of domestic violence;
To acquaint the program participants from the NIS with American expertise on this problem and acquaint US participants with organizations working on this problem in the target cities;
To identify the most active participants from the NIS and train them to form a coalition, in order to continue the battle against domestic violence in their city.

The first phase of the program will form an initial coalition of specialists from different disciplines and organizations who will develop a work plan and will work on the problem of domestic violence in their cities.

Goals of Phase II:

To teach specialists specific training programs that have been requested by their coalitions. Examples of such programs would be specific curriculums on teen dating violence or on how to run a support group for victims;
To draw new participants to the coalition and to distribute information about the coalition.

During phase II, Project Harmony works with the participants in each city to establish a Domestic Violence Resource Center. Each center will contain a library of information about domestic violence, resources to help community members and a meeting place for specialists and the community.

Goals of Phase III:

To support the work of the coalitions;
To do outreach work in the regions surrounding the targeted cities;
To work with police training institutions and teach their students a course entitled "Domestic Violence is a Crime";
To create a website in order to allow participants in different cities to centralize and exchange information.

During the third phase, groups of representatives from each of the coalitions travel to the US to study the approach of domestic violence professionals in the US in a hands-on working environment. After studying this approach coalition members are then asked to form a strategic action plan as to how they can incorporate their new knowledge into enhancing the work of their coalitions in their home communities. Project Harmony organizes technical capacity building programs to enhance the police understanding and response to the domestic violence problem. These programs consist of sending a team of two trainers (police and law) to the targeted sites to teach the course "Domestic Violence is a Crime," an intense training with law enforcement and legal partners.

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A Program of The US State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, administered by "Project Harmony"