(WITHDRAWN) I Am My Sister's Keeper: The Importance of Community in Addressing IPV Among Black Women

Although intimate partner violence (IPV) is present in every community, it personifies and persists in disparate ways. Within the last 20 years, efforts to address IPV have included an emphasis on racial and ethnic populations such as the Black community, pivoting from early efforts that focused primarily on white communities (Gillum, 2021; Jenkins, 2021). Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research and evidence situating IPV in the context of other forms of violence (e.g., community violence) and geographic locations (e.g., rural communities). As Black women experience higher rates of varying forms of IPV, compared to other women, it is critical that their victimization is placed in the context of other forms of violence and the geographical communities in which they reside. According to research, the Black community experiences multiple stressors simultaneously (Gillum, 2021), which could contribute to why individuals within the community are not necessarily sounding the alarm about IPV as a community violence issue. Therefore, IPV may not be the most salient problem to address when individuals do choose to seek services (Gillum, 2021). Black communities may also view IPV as an individual or family problem that doesn't warrant a response from the entire community (Jenkins, 2021).

It is imperative that the communities who are in need of resources have access to them but that those services also encompass the true needs of said communities to ensure that individuals can do more than survive. By centering the experiences, knowledge, and needs of Black women, communities can cease the interpersonal violence perpetrated against Black women and foster environments that heal, support and empower Black women, creating positive outcomes for the entire Black community.

This roundtable discussion will provide considerations for engaging Black women survivors and the larger Black community, providing insightful considerations for practice and research. The first presenter will discuss IPV as a form of community violence, the conceptualization of IPV in rural communities, and the importance of including all Black women in IPV research. The second presenter will discuss the implications of social media misinformation and how this can hinder the ability to seek care as the role of social media in seeking and accessing mental health services cannot be overlooked. The third presenter will discuss the role of social capital among Black people, collectively, and the critical need to equip informal systems of care with the proper support to continue to assist survivors of violence. The fourth and final presenter will conclude with suggestions for how to engage communities, enhance buy-in from local government agencies and culturally relevant program implementation and service delivery. Our goal is to encourage the use of community-based participatory research methods to address issues that disproportionately affect marginalized groups within the Black community but, most importantly, to affirm and support the inherent value of Black communities, the knowledge produced by Black women, and uplift interventions that will lead to lives free of interpersonal violence for Black women and the larger Black community.