Background
In the spring of 2006, The Bingham Program became interested in the issue of violence against women and children. Initially, we thought we would be able to focus our attention on the role we could play in health care. We quickly learned that health care expenses are only a piece of the yearly $1.3 billion costs to Maine economy. With a population of 1.3 million people, $1,000 per resident per year is not an insignificant sum for a small, relatively poor state. The advisors decided it was time to effect a change in the cultural acceptance of violence against women and children. Social change, however, was not something we were going to be able to bring about on our own so we began to look for partners.
Over the years the issue of violence against women and children had been mislabeled a “women’s issue” and relegated to the less important issues with which the state needed to deal. For the Bingham advisors, however, this was an economic issue that needed the voices of business and men added to the discussion of solutions.
In the fall of 2006, Bingham asked former Governor Angus King and Chamber of Commerce President Dana Connors to convene a group of business leaders who were men. The leaders were chosen because they had adopted policies within their own companies and because they were known to domestic violence and sexual assault advocates as supportive. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce them to the work of Vincent Felitti, MD at Kaiser Permanente and Robert Anda, MD of the CDC concerning the long term effects on health and productivity of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Because of the need to get the attention of business and industry focused on the productivity losses resulting from domestic violence and sexual assault, we also began discussions with the Maine Development Foundation about the possibility of developing a measure of growth for the Maine Economic Growth Council’s yearly
report. At its meeting in January 2008, the Council set a goal of developing a safety indicator or cluster of indicators for its next report.
The Bingham Program’s advisors have committed to spending up to $1 million to focus the state’s attention on the devastating personal and economic effects of violence against women and children and on what we all can do to foster primary prevention efforts in our personal and professional lives. We are also working to match that amount and always interested in partners.
We envision our work taking place in the wider context of providing safe and supportive early childhood experiences necessary for Maine to produce our most precious resource, our children. There are currently a number of initiatives – statewide and local -- focusing on the need for and development of healthy birth-to-three environments. We support these efforts because of the research indicating the critical importance of this period for infants’ and toddlers’ healthy development and because one of the strongest indicators for continuation of the cycle of abuse is exposure to it at an early age.
Areas of Focus
Grantmaking
Strategy:
To continue, and to expand upon, the types of work we have been funding for the past year – i.e. the Maine Primary Care Association’s work training medical staff on the why and how of screening at medical visits; Family Crisis Services’ research and policy development to include course work on domestic violence counseling for students; support for A Call to Men.
Successful future grants will focus on primary prevention and address the issue from a statewide perspective at least in terms of their effects, rather than be grants to individual domestic violence and sexual assault projects for work in their particular programs. For example, we might support statewide efforts aimed at bringing clergy together, supporting efforts that link animal and domestic abuse, or advocating for legislation or funding. That’s not to say that we won’t fund worthwhile individual programs as part of our regular grantmaking process but they will not be considered as part of the initiative’s work. In all cases, the Spectrum of
Prevention would be the framework for the initiative’s grantmaking activities:
· Strengthening individual knowledge and skills;
· Promoting community education;
· Educating providers;
· Fostering coalitions and networks;
· Changing organizational practices; and,
· Influencing policy and legislation
We encourage grantees to work on several of the Spectrum’s levels.
Projected expenditure: $150 - $225,000 over three years
Convening and Educating Community Sectors
Strategy:
For the business community: To contract with the Maine Development Foundation to spearhead the effort to engage business’s attention on this issue because we know that the voices of men and business are missing from this discussion and that it is precisely to those voices that the culture listens.
Strategy:
For the healthcare community: To focus the attention of those in healthcare – hospitals, medical practices, other health providers -- on the long-term health effects of violence against women and children and the ways in which the healthcare sector can make a difference.
Strategy:
For men: To support the work begun by the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Maine Attorney General’s office through A Call to Men.
Projected expenditure: - $360,000 - $545,000
Research and Measurement
Strategy: Polling and development of a media campaign.
Because of the expense of a successful campaign, this is the area in which we will most need to create partnerships with other foundations, corporations and the media.
What are we looking for in a project?
For initiative-funded proposals we are interested in projects that address primary prevention and have wide geographic application. In addition, applicants should use the Spectrum of Prevention
as the framework for their activities and be specific about how their activities fit within, preferably, at least two levels. Because the Spectrum works comprehensively to bring about social change, the more levels a project is able to effectively address, the better. We are also interested in projects that bring unusual partners to the table as well as other sources of money, whether from the community, business sector or philanthropy.
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