This training was designed to foster hope and enhance advocates' understanding of how domestic violence has caused fractures in relationships. We discovered ways of approaching youth and parents with a new perspective of how residing in a shelter can be safer, but not always “emotionally safe” for youth and parents who survived a batterer as a partner/parent.

It is ethical to learn how to support families holistically. Yet, often as domestic violence programs, we are ill-equipped in our training and service design to help in a trauma-informed manner, leaving us to possibly cause secondary harm to parents and children within our services. Participants joined in this candid dialogue about the difficulties of working in a shelter and the amazing opportunities to create space for families to bond with each other after the fractures occurred from the abuser's harm.

Note: This is an advanced skills training with a prerequisite of completing a 30-minute online learning module titled Supporting Adult Survivors as Parents in Domestic Violence Programming. This online learning module should be completed through the Online Learning Academy before this training.