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Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project
History of the National Training Project

In the 1970's, when the first shelters for battered women opened, the response of law enforcement, courts and human service practitioners to domestic assault cases was dismally inadequate. Since that time policy makers in almost every profession involved in these cases have reassessed their appropriate intervention roles in cases of battering.

Since 1974 hundreds of federal, state and city commissions and task forces have studied the problem and made recommendations for change.

With few exceptions, these public commissions document brutal beatings, psychological terrorism and murders that could have been prevented by altering not the perpetrator's character or the response of the victim to the perpetrator, but the reaction of the public agencies to the violence, to the perpetrator and to the victim. Public commissions consistently point to five areas to improve the system's response to assault cases.

1. A shift in the orientation of the system's response of placing the major responsibility of stopping the violence on the shoulders of the victim, to recognizing the role that community agencies must play in directly confronting the perpetrator.
2. A need to be consistent in how practitioners in a given discipline respond, and the need to exchange the information and observations of the many people involved in a case for practitioners to make informed decisions.
3. A need to enhance practitioners' technical skills in working with assailants, victims and children.
4. A need to increase the understanding of human service and court agents of the complex set of economic, physical and psychological conditions that exist in relationships where there is violence.
5. A need to insure basic protective resources for victims of violence.

The Duluth Experience

The City of Duluth has received international recognition for its pioneering efforts to alter public policy to protect victims of domestic abuse and offer rehabilitation opportunities for offenders.

In 1981, nine city, county and private agencies organized under the umbrella of the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP) to adopt policies and procedures coordinating their intervention in domestic assault cases. These policies focused on protecting victims from continued acts of violence by combining support services for victims with legal sanctions, rehabilitation program and, when necessary, incarceration of an assailant. The Duluth project has been widely recognized as a model in confronting domestic assault.

The National Training Project

In the past twelve years, the Domestic Abuse Intervention project has responded to thousands of requests asking for information, for guidance or, sometimes, simply for encouragement. The project has offered seminars, trainings and workshops in seven countries and has trained staff of domestic violence and community agencies in all fifty states. In 1989 the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project decided to form the National Training Project using both trainers who work directly with the Duluth Model and practitioners implementing similar projects in larger communities such as San Diego, Boston, Milwaukee and Nashville.

While our experience over the years had led to the development of exercises, handouts, overheads, lectures and training videos, no two seminars, conferences or trainings have been the same. The social, economic and political realities of each community we travel to or of those who have attended our week-long institutes in Duluth have shaped the design and content of every training we have offered.

The National Training Project offers a number of general and specialized trainings. The general trainings focus on providing a philosophical orientation for practitioners and defines the roles of each agency in dealing with both the victim and the assailant. The specialized trainings offer an overview of the interagency approach, but focus on enhancing the individual practitioner's skills and philosophical orientation in carrying out specific intervention functions.

Many communities ask us to provide a one-day interagency training followed by specialized trainings. A training coordinator can assist you in determining which of the trainings or combination of trainings best fits your community needs. Our brochure gives a general description of each of the trainings. To order our training and publications brochure, contact:

Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project
National Training Project
206 West Fourth Street
Duluth, Minnesota
55806 U.S.A.
Ph: (218) 722-2781
Fx: (218) 722-0779