The Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence hopes a new website will improve its efforts to get men involved in preventing domestic violence. Coalition prevention coordinator, Tess Cody, says they’ve been working to get men more involved through their participation in the Iowa Men’s Action Network’s or I-MAN.
Cody says some of the men are service providers, some are educators, some are attorneys, as there is a wide variety of men in the group who’re focused on ending violence against women. She says the get together via the telephone every month and quarterly in person to discuss what’s happening in Iowa and to bounce ideas off each other.
Cody says they’ve won a grant from the Verizon Foundation to create a website for the effort. Cody says the website will be a place where they can put their “founding documents” and share information on the group. Cody says domestic violence prevention groups have traditionally not done a good job of getting men involved, and this effort seeks to do that in a wider approach to the problem.
She says they can’t just look at the victims they serve, they have to look at the whole system. Cody says some men are victims, but a lot more are friends, sons or co-workers of women who have been battered and violence against women is something they can relate to. Cody says it’s especially important to get everyone involved as the economy has help push and increase in domestic violence calls, while the money to help has decreased.
Cody says the resources to respond to domestic violence have been going down “so all of a sudden that need to prevent violence just seems all the more pressing, and so engaging men and just engaging whole communities in violence prevention becomes so so important.” You can find out more about the I-MAN by e-mailing Cody at Tessp.icadv.org, by calling 515-244-8028 or via their website at:www.icadv.org.