MN Child Response
Initiative Partnership
Community Needs Assessment Results
Prepared May
2003
Compiled by Lacey
Hartman
Introduction and Background
The Minnesota Child Response
Intitiative (MCRI) is a partnership of the following of domestic violence
programs, mental health agencies, and child-serving systems: African-American
Family Services, CornerHouse, Domestic Abuse Project, Family and Children’s
Services, Eastside Neighborhood Services,
Intervention
The intervention component of the project involves the pairing of mental health professionals and family violence advocates with law enforcement officers to offer a voluntary, acute advocacy and crisis response to families who have called 911 for help with domestic violence incidents, or other incidents involving children’s exposure to violence. These visits are meant to provide additional resources to children and families dealing with the difficult physical and emotional issues associated with domestic violence. Follow-up visits are made when necessary, and the clinicians and advocates make referrals to meet the court advocacy, mental health, and social service needs of the families.
System Change
Central to identifying and intervening with children exposed to violence is a better understanding of the system and community barriers that exist to working with these children. This is the motivation for the system change component of the MCRI project. The system change component is comprised of a geo-mapping project to identify gaps between need and available resources for children exposed to violence, a policy analysis committee that attempts to establish a picture of how key elements of the social system work together to serve children and make recommendations about more efficient collaboration and service delivery, and the community needs assessments, which are the focus of this report.
Community Needs Assessments
The primary goal of the community needs assessments is to gain more information about how particular communities perceive the problems of violence and how these perceptions relate to the needs of children. Within this context, the needs assessments attempt to identify what barriers exist in terms of service delivery and collaboration with mental health workers. A prominent theme of the community needs assessments is the effort to understand culturally specific needs with regard to children and violence. MCRI’s focus on partnership is also exemplified in this piece of the project. Each community needs assessment has been developed in close collaboration with key stakeholders and leaders in the communities. (See Appendix 4 for the list of working groups). The goal has been for each community to establish the best method(s) for obtaining this information. The communities have varied somewhat in their original approaches but, somewhat surprisingly, short surveys have proved the most effective method for gathering this information. To date, needs assessments have been conducted in the African American, African immigrant, and mainstream or Caucasian communities. Grant support for this project offers the opportunity to expand this work to include other communities in the Twin Cities in the future. What follows is an overview of the research methodologies used in the needs assessments that have been conducted to date.
Methodology
African American Community
A small working group of
service providers and experts (see Appendix 4) within the African American
community in
African Immigrant Community
The needs assessment in the African Immigrant community was initially centered around focus groups. The survey used in the African American assessment was adapted into a set of focus group questions deemed appropriate to the African immigrant community (see Appendix 1). While the focus groups did glean a great deal of useful information, recruiting participants for additional groups proved extremely difficult. As a result, the survey from the African American community was used in the African immigrant needs assessment as well. Survey participants were recruited at local restaurants and coffee shops. A total of 71 surveys were collected through this process.
Mainstream Community
The community needs assessment
in the mainstream community was developed in order to gain more information
about needs specific to Caucasian Americans in northeast
Key Findings & Comparisons
Areas of Consensus
A comparison of the findings indicates consensus across the three communities on a broad range of issues related to violence and children. Strong majorities in all three communities indicated that violence is learned behavior (see Figure 1). Very small numbers of respondents in each community believed that “people are born violent.” Additionally, respondents in all three communities displayed an understanding that violence has a clear and negative impact on children and families. Most salient for the MCRI project, majorities in each community also agreed that children witnessing a violent act is a form of violence (see Figure 2).
In terms of communicating about violence, majorities in each community felt comfortable talking with their own children about violence, but were more hesitant about their children discussing such issues with other people. Majorities in each community also displayed a belief that domestic violence is an issue that requires outside intervention. There was consistent disagreement across communities (responses were split within each community) about whether violence should be responded to by leaving the situation. Most parents in each community felt that their parenting strategies were effective, and primarily used disciplinary methods that focused on “talking about the behavior” and “positive reinforcement”.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Differences
The surveys were conducted in slightly different ways within each community, and simple random sampling was not used consistently in any community. As a result, differences in responses between communities cannot be assumed to be statistically significant. However, the results do display some differences that may be informative for shaping education and intervention efforts.
The respondents in the communities differed somewhat in their demographic characteristics. The most marked difference was age---respondents in the mainstream community were, on average, twenty years older than their counterparts in the African American and African immigrant communities (see Figure 3). Both the African immigrant and mainstream community respondents were on the whole more suburban than the respondents in the African American community. Men outnumbered women in the African immigrant respondent pool only (see Figure 4).
One of the most distinct differences between the communities is the extent to which respondents indicated their families had been impacted by racism. For example, 56.1% and 69.2% of the respondents in the African American and African immigrant communities respectively said that their families had been impacted by racism. Only 20.3% of the respondents in the mainstream community reported similar experiences. Also worth noting are the differences between communities in the number of people that feel their children are cared about and welcomed within their communities. Although majorities in each group said that they felt this was true, the agreement was much stronger within the mainstream community (where 97.7% agreed with the statement). 72.2% and 72.7% agreed with this statement in the African American and African immigrant communities respectively. Understanding the reason for the discrepancies might warrant further inquiry; for example, the discrepancies may be attributable to the generation/age differences between the two minority groups (both groups of respondents being, on average, of childbearing age) and the mainstream group (average age 53, close to a generation older) more than any other factors.
While majorities in each community thought that social service agencies are helpful, there was some variation in the percentage of people that felt such agencies were “overly involved”. Only 10.4% in the mainstream community felt that social service agencies were “overly involved”, as compared to 27.7% and 20.5% in the African immigrant and African American communities respectively. Relatedly, respondents in the mainstream community were much more likely than respondents in the other communities to perceive mental health service providers as “helping to deal with issues of domestic violence”.
Finally, although majorities in each community felt that people victimized by violence should contact the police, the results indicate more hesitation about this within the African immigrant community. 73.4% of the respondents in the African immigrant community felt that victims should contact police, as compared to 89.8% in the mainstream and 92.7% in the African American community.
These results are not necessarily representative of each community. However, some of these differences in perceptions of social service agencies and police officers indicate a need for more trust building within communities of color.
Figure 3
Figure 4
Community Specific Findings
African American Community Survey Results
A total of 41 surveys were collected in the African American community. Detailed data tables can be found in Appendix 2. The following summarizes key themes from the survey results in the African American community.
Demographics
The vast majority of the respondents (84.2%) in the African
American community needs assessment lived in
Perceptions of
Violence and Its Impact on Children
One of the key objectives of the community needs assessment was to gain a better understanding of how people conceptualize violence and its impact on children. The manner in which people define and perceive violence is partly determined by what they consider to be the sources of violence. There seemed consensus among the African American survey respondents that violence is learned behavior: 57.1% said that people learn violence from video games and television, 61.9% said that violence is learned from families, and 78.6% cited “society” as a source of learned violent behavior. Only 16.7% thought that people are “born violent”.
The perception that violence is learned behavior was also reflected in the responses to questions about the impact that violence has on children. For example, only 9.5% of respondents said that it was true that “violence does not affect children”. 100% of the respondents agreed with the statement that “violence at home interferes with a child’s performance at school.” There was also broad consensus that children witnessing a violent act is a form of violence (95% of respondents agreed with that statement). Overall the responses indicate that respondents believed exposure to violence is harmful for children. There was somewhat less consensus, however, about whether this meant that violence was always to be avoided. 22% of the respondents agreed with the statement that “violence is sometimes necessary”.
Understanding and
Communicating About Violence
Central to effectively advocating for children exposed to violence is getting people to talk about the problem. From this perspective, it is important to understand what people perceive as appropriate or effective venues for communicating about violence in both the public and private spheres. When asked about the most effective way to get information about domestic violence out to the community, there was most consensus (83.3%) that groups and seminars were effective methods. Support for more passive approaches to distributing domestic violence information, such as advertisements and pamphlets, was less strong (64.3% and 59.5% respectively). When asked with whom they feel comfortable sharing information more generally, there was most consensus (82.9%) around family. Friends and people in the community (65.0% and 68.9% respectively) came in close “seconds”.
The survey also asked questions about how and whether people discuss violence at home. Generally, there was consensus that it was appropriate to talk with children about domestic violence at home (90.5% agreed with that statement). However, only 46.3% said that “other people talk to my kids about domestic violence”. Of the people with children that answered the survey, 100% agreed with the statement “I feel comfortable talking to my children about domestic violence”, whereas only 65.5% agreed with the statement “I feel comfortable with others talking to my children about domestic violence.”
Responding to
Violence
Tailoring domestic violence services and education requires information about how people currently feel violence should be handled. The responses from the African American survey participants displayed a general feeling that domestic violence is a public issue that requires outside intervention. For example, 90.5% of the respondents did not agree with the statement that “When couples hurt each other, it is their own business.” 95.2% also disagreed with a similar statement about harming children. Additionally, 92.7% agreed with the statement that “People who are victimized should involve the police.” There was less agreement about whether “violence should be responded to by leaving the situation”. 62.5% agreed with this statement, 37.5% did not.
Perceptions of Social Service Agencies and Other Public Advocates
Trust is an extremely important factor in developing effective intervention and advocacy systems for children exposed to domestic violence. A few of the questions on the survey tried to get a feel for how social service agencies and their capacity to deal with the problems of domestic violence were perceived. These responses are potentially biased because all respondents knew that the survey was being conducted by a group of domestic violence advocacy agencies. As a result, people may have been less willing to express unfavorable opinions about such organizations. 79.5% of the respondents considered social service agencies to be “helpful”. 20.5% considered them “overly involved”. Only 10.3% said that social service agencies are “unnecessary”. While this response had the least support among respondents, the perception that social services are unnecessary may warrant further exploration.
When asked about who or what helps address domestic violence in the community, there was most consensus (68.3%) that domestic violence advocates served this purpose. Neighborhood community organizers and churches were also cited as entities that address domestic violence in the community. There was least consensus (29.3%) that mental health service providers served this purpose. 82.9% of the respondents indicated that activities in schools were an effective way to help kids deal with domestic and community violence. Trainings about domestic violence for people that work with kids on a daily basis was also commonly cited as an effective way to help children deal with violence (70.7% of the respondents selected this option).
Parenting Strategies
A set of questions on the survey were only asked of people with children. A few of these questions dealt with parenting strategies. 87% of the respondents with children felt that their parenting strategies were effective. When asked about parenting techniques, the most frequently cited methods were talking about the behavior (90.3%) and positive reinforcement (74.2%). Physical punishment and negative reinforcement were much less frequently selected (45.2% and 41.9% respectively).
Feelings of
Inclusiveness and Security
An important component of successful intervention is helping families feel more secure and connected to their communities. Most (87.8%) of the respondents felt that their basic needs in terms of clothing, shelter, and food were being met. 74.2% of the respondents with children agreed with the statement “I feel that the community we live in welcomes and cares about my children.” 85.7% of all respondents felt welcomed in the community. However, 56.1% stated that their family had been impacted by racism.
Mainstream
Community Survey Results
A total of 71 surveys were collected in the mainstream community. Detailed data tables can be found in Appendix 2. The following summarizes key themes from the survey results in the mainstream community.
Demographics
The majority of the respondents (61.9%) in the mainstream
community needs assessment lived in suburbs, 31.7% lived in
Perceptions of
Violence and Its Impact on Children
One of the key objectives of the community needs assessment was to gain a better understanding of how people conceptualize violence and its impact on children. The manner in which people define and perceive violence is partly determined by what they consider to be the sources of violence. There seemed consensus among the mainstream survey respondents that violence is learned behavior: 78.9% said that people learn violence from video games and television, 74.6% said that violence is learned from families, and 67.6% cited “society” as a source of learned violent behavior. Only 5.6% thought that people are “born violent”.
The perception that violence is learned behavior was also reflected in the responses to questions about the impact that violence has on children. For example, only 4.3% of respondents said that it was true that “violence does not affect children”. 100% of the respondents agreed with the statement that “violence at home interferes with a child’s performance at school.” There was also consensus that children witnessing a violent act is a form of violence (86.2% of respondents agreed with that statement). Overall the results indicate that respondents believed exposure to violence is harmful for children.
Understanding and
Communicating About Violence
Central to effectively advocating for children exposed to violence is getting people to talk about the problem. From this perspective, it is important to understand what people perceive as appropriate or effective venues for communicating about violence in both the public and private spheres. When asked about the most effective way to get information about domestic violence out to the community, there was most consensus (74.6%) that groups and seminars were effective methods. There was less support for more passive approaches to providing information about domestic violence, such as advertisements and pamphlets (56.7% and 53.7% respectively). When asked with whom they feel comfortable sharing information more generally, there was most consensus (77.6%) around family. Friends and people in the community (70.1% and 68.7% respectively) came in close “seconds”.
The survey also asked questions about how and whether people discuss violence at home. Many of these questions suffered from relatively low response rates in the mainstream community (see data tables in Appendix 2 for details). This was possibly due to a perception among respondents that discussing violence at home or with others meant that they had experienced domestic violence. Among those that did respond to the questions, there was consensus that it was appropriate to talk with children about domestic violence at home (88.7% agreed with that statement, with a response rate of 87.3%). 67.3% said that “other people talk to my kids about domestic violence”(response rate 73.2%). Of the people with children that answered the survey, 93.8% agreed with the statement “I feel comfortable talking to my children about domestic violence”. A somewhat smaller number of respondents (80%) agreed with the statement “I feel comfortable with others talking to my children about domestic violence.”
Responding to
Violence
Tailoring domestic violence services and education requires information about how people currently feel violence should be handled. The responses from the mainstream survey participants displayed a general feeling that domestic violence is a public issue that requires outside intervention. For example, 88.9% of the respondents did not agree with the statement that “When couples hurt each other, it is their own business.” 100% also disagreed with a similar statement about harming children. Additionally, 89.8% agreed with the statement that “People who are victimized should involve the police.” There was considerably less agreement about whether “violence should be responded to by leaving the situation”. 52.5% agreed with this statement, 47.5% did not.
Perceptions of Social Service Agencies and Other Public Advocates
Trust is an extremely important factor in developing effective intervention and advocacy systems for children exposed to domestic violence. A few of the questions on the survey tried to get a feel for how social service agencies and their capacity to deal with the problems of domestic violence were perceived. These responses are potentially biased because all respondents knew that the survey was being conducted by a group of domestic violence advocacy agencies. As a result, people may have been less willing to express unfavorable opinions about such organizations. 83,6% of the respondents considered social service agencies to be “helpful”. 10.4% consider them “overly involved”. Only 1.5% said that social service agencies are “unnecessary”.
When asked about who or what helps address domestic violence in the community, there was most consensus (70.6%) that domestic violence advocates served this purpose. Mental health service providers, churches, and child protection workers were also cited as serving this purpose. 80.9% of the respondents indicated that activities in schools were an effective way to help kids deal with domestic and community violence. Trainings about domestic violence for people that work with kids on a daily basis was also commonly cited as an effective way to help children deal with violence (66.2% of the respondents selected this response).
Parenting Strategies
A set of questions on the survey were only asked of people with children. A few of these questions dealt with parenting strategies. 93% of the respondents with children felt that their parenting strategies were effective. When asked about parenting techniques, the most frequently cited methods were talking about the behavior (89.4%) and positive reinforcement (78.7%). Physical punishment was much less frequently selected (25.5%).
Feelings of
Inclusiveness and Security
An important component of successful intervention is helping families feel more secure and connected to their communities. Most (96.8%) of the respondents felt that their basic needs in terms of clothing, shelter, and food were being met. 97.7% of the respondents with children agreed with the statement “I feel that the community we live in welcomes and cares about my children.” 98.4% of all respondents felt welcomed in the community.
African Immigrant Community Survey Results
Focus Groups
Initially, focus groups were the primary research method
used in the African immigrant community needs assessment. Four focus groups were conducted with African
immigrants in
Participants provided a wide range of responses regarding the definitions and sources of violence and how best to discipline children. There was consensus, however, that children learn violence at home and that exposure to violence is harmful for children. Another common theme was the frustration that comes with attempting to navigate a system that doesn’t engage effectively with cultural differences. A frequently cited example of this was the manner in which 9-1-1 has become, in some families, a bargaining chip that children can use against their parents. This is made especially problematic because of generational differences in English proficiency (i.e. kids speak the language better so they are more able to manipulate the system).
Surveys
Although the focus groups provided very important insights about the needs of children exposed to violence in the African immigrant community, it proved extremely difficult to recruit participants. In order to reach a broader spectrum of the community, surveys were conducted. A total of 70 surveys were collected in the African immigrant community. Detailed data tables can be found in Appendix 2. The following summarizes key themes from the survey results in the mainstream community.
Demographics
The majority of the respondents in the survey component of
the African immigrant community needs assessment lived in
Perceptions of
Violence and Its Impact on Children
One of the key objectives of the community needs assessment was to gain a better understanding of how people conceptualize violence and its impact on children. The manner in which people define and perceive violence is partly determined by what they consider to be the sources of violence. There seemed consensus among the African immigrant survey respondents that violence is learned behavior: 70.0% said that people learn violence from video games and television, 55.7% said that violence is learned from families, and 70.0% cited “society” as a source of learned violent behavior. Only 8.6% thought that people are “born violent”.
The perception that violence is learned behavior was also reflected in the responses to questions about the impact that violence has on children. For example, only 8.6% of the respondents said that it was true that “violence does not affect children”. 92.6% of the respondents agreed with the statement that “violence at home interferes with a child’s performance at school.” There was also consensus that children witnessing a violent act is a form of violence (86.4% of respondents agreed with that statement). Overall the results indicate that respondents believed exposure to violence is harmful for children.
Understanding and
Communicating About Violence
A big part of advocating for children exposed to violence is getting people to talk about the problem. From this perspective, it is important to understand what people perceive as appropriate or effective venues for communicating about violence in both the public and private spheres. When asked about the most effective way to get information about domestic violence out to the community, there was most consensus (81.4%) that groups and seminars were effective methods. There was less support for more passive approaches to providing information about domestic violence, such as advertisements and pamphlets (47.1% and 35.7% respectively). When asked with whom they feel comfortable sharing information more generally, there was most consensus (80.9%) around family. Friends came in a close “second” (67.6%). Only 47.1% said that they feel comfortable sharing information with “people in the community” more generally.
The survey also asked questions about how and whether people discuss violence at home. Some of these questions suffered from relatively low response rates in the African immigrant community (see data tables in Appendix 2 for details). This was possibly due to a perception among respondents that discussing violence at home meant that they had experienced domestic violence. Among those that did respond to the questions, there was consensus that it was appropriate to talk with children about domestic violence at home (80.0% agreed with that statement, with a response rate of 92.9%). 58.0% said that “other people talk to my kids about domestic violence”(response rate 71.4%). Of the people with children that answered the survey, 80.0% agreed with the statement “I feel comfortable talking to my children about domestic violence”. A somewhat smaller number of respondents (64.7%) agreed with the statement “I feel comfortable with others talking to my children about domestic violence.”
Responding to
Violence
Tailoring domestic violence services and education requires information about how people currently feel violence should be handled. The responses from the African immigrant participants displayed a general feeling that domestic violence is a public issue that requires outside intervention. For example, 87.5% of the respondents did not agree with the statement that “When couples hurt each other, it is their own business.” 89.4% also disagreed with a similar statement about harming children. Additionally, 73.4% agreed with the statement that “People who are victimized should involve the police.” There was considerably less agreement about whether “violence should be responded to by leaving the situation”. 46.8% agreed with this statement, 53.2% did not.
Perceptions of Social Service Agencies and Other Public Advocates
Trust is an extremely important factor in developing effective intervention and advocacy systems for children exposed to domestic violence. A few of the questions on the survey tried to get a feel for how social service agencies and their capacity to deal with the problems of domestic violence were perceived among the respondents. These responses are potentially biased because all respondents knew that the survey was being conducted by a group of domestic violence advocacy agencies. As a result, people may have been less willing to express unfavorable opinions about such organizations. 81.5% of the respondents considered social service agencies to be “helpful”. 27.7% consider them “overly involved”. 9.2% said that social service agencies are “unnecessary”.
When asked about who or what helps address domestic violence in the community, there was most consensus (62.3%) that churches served this purpose. Neighborhood community organizers and domestic violence advocates were also perceived as serving this purpose. Mental health service providers were least frequently cited (26.0%) as addressing domestic violence in the community. 81.4% of the respondents indicated that activities in schools were an effective way to help kids deal with domestic and community violence. Community agencies and trainings about domestic violence for people that work with kids on a daily basis were also commonly cited as effective ways to help children deal with violence (58.2% and 56.7% respectively).
Parenting Strategies
A set of questions on the survey were only asked of people with children. A few of these questions dealt with parenting strategies. 93.8% of the respondents with children felt that their parenting strategies were effective. When asked about parenting techniques, the most frequently cited methods were talking about the behavior (84.4%) and positive reinforcement (71.9%). Physical punishment was much less frequently selected (15.6%).
Feelings of
Inclusiveness and Security
An important component of successful intervention is helping families feel more secure and connected to their communities. Most (83.3%) of the respondents felt that their basic needs in terms of clothing, shelter, and food were being met. 72.7% of the respondents with children agreed with the statement “I feel that the community we live in welcomes and cares about my children.” 86.2% of all respondents felt welcomed in the community. The majority of the respondents (69.2%) said that their family has been impacted by racism.
Survey Instrument
Survey Administrator
fill out this table:
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Code: |
Location: |
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Community: |
Survey Administered by (initials): |
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Date: |
Written/Interviewed |
Thank you for taking the time to complete our survey. Your answers will help us better understand the needs of the community in regards to violence. All of your answers are anonymous—meaning that all information you provide WIL NOT be associated with you. The survey is being conducted by East Side Neighborhood Services and the Minnesota Child Response Initiative (MCRI).*
Community
Response to Violence
1.) People learn violence from (circle all that apply)
a) Video games and television
b) Their family
c) People are born violent
d) Society
e) Other (write in your response):_________________________________
2.) Who/what helps address domestic violence in the community? (circle all that apply)
a) Mental health service providers
b) Neighborhood community organizers
c) Churches
d) Police intervention
e) School social workers
f) Child protection workers
g) Domestic violence advocates
h) Other (write in your response):__________________________________
3.) Who/what might help kids deal with domestic violence and community violence? (circle all that apply)
a) Activities in the school (ex: support groups)
b) Mental health service providers
c) Community agencies
d) Trainings about domestic violence for people who work with children
e) Other (write in your response): ____________________________________
4.) Information about domestic violence could best be provided to the community by: (circle all that apply):
a) Groups and seminars
b) Advertisements
c) Pamphlets
d) Other (write in your response):__________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
5.) I feel comfortable sharing information and getting help from: (circle all that apply)
a) My friends
b) My family
c) People in the community (i.e., social services, church)
d) Other (write in your response):__________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
6.) I perceive social service support agencies as: (circle all that apply)
a) helpful
b) overly involved
c) unnecessary
d) Other (write in your response):__________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________