The CDC Foundation Receives $3.2 Million Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Help Prevent Intimate Partner Violence

ATLANTA – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation has received a $3.2 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help prevent intimate partner violence. The grant will enable CDC's Division of Violence Prevention to help state-level domestic violence coalitions incorporate primary prevention strategies into their overall domestic violence programming.

"We want to support the adoption of best practices by community-based organizations and prevent violence from happening in the first place," says Corinne Graffunder, branch chief, Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC. "This is an opportunity to help more organizations embrace prevention practices and incorporate them into the important work they're already doing."

CDC's violence prevention team will work with the CDC Foundation to award coalitions at least $14,000 per year for a three-year project period to up to 20 state-level domestic violence coalitions selected through a competitive application process. In addition to funding, the selected coalitions will receive training and technical assistance from the CDC team.

Intimate partner violence refers to physical, sexual or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse and is a significant public health problem with serious consequences for victims, families and communities. Nearly 5.3 million incidents of intimate partner violence occur each year among U.S. women ages 18 and older, and 3.2 million incidents occur among men. All forms of intimate partner violence can be prevented.

This project builds on the success of a current CDC program called Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancements and Leadership Through Alliances (DELTA) through which CDC funds 14 state-level domestic violence coalitions to conduct prevention efforts in their states and local communities.

With CDC's support, state coalitions participating in the DELTA program provide prevention-focused training, technical assistance and funding to local programs addressing domestic violence in their states and work with diverse partners to develop comprehensive five- to eight-year plans to reduce intimate partner violence statewide. State coalitions currently participating in the DELTA project will mentor the coalitions selected to participate in this project made possible by the grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the CDC Foundation.

"We are hopeful this project will help spark a national transformation in how states and communities work together to prevent intimate partner violence," says Charles Stokes, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. "We are grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for their support of this important project."

Program organizers at CDC and the CDC Foundation anticipate issuing a request for proposals (RFP) in December 2008. Representatives of state domestic violence coalitions interested in applying are invited to visit www.cdcfoundation.org/ipv to learn more and to download the RFP once posted. For more information, please contact Kimberley Freire at kfreire@cdc.gov.

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Established by Congress, the CDC Foundation helps CDC do more, faster, by forging effective partnerships between CDC and corporations, foundations, organizations and individuals to fight threats to health and safety. The Foundation currently manages approximately 200 programs in the United States and in countries around the world. Each of our programs involves a talented team of experts at CDC and at least one outside funding partner.