Helpful Resources Domestic Violence Tools and Resources

The primary goal of the Constanta, Romania/Louisville, Kentucky, partnership was to promote community involvement to improve women's health. In the community assessment phase of the partnership, 1,311 women in Constanta were surveyed to identify perceptions and concerns related to women's health. The top three health concerns listed by those surveyed were sexually transmitted infections, domestic violence, and lack of health education.

The Romanian partners created an interdisciplinary commission on domestic violence with representatives from various sectors to develop strategies for fighting domestic violence in Constanta. The Louisville partners assisted their Romanian counterparts in the development of an inter-disciplinary approach to address domestic violence. The US partners provided training for dealing with domestic violence cases. A number of community institutions and organizations in Constanta were enlisted to implement the domestic violence intervention, which included a plan for centralized and standardized reporting of domestic violence cases and campaigns to raise awareness of the issue among the community's citizens.

In March 2000, the partners launched the first domestic violence awareness campaign in a busy downtown area of Constanta. Seventeen young volunteers handed out brochures about domestic violence and pins and pens with the motto, "Live Safely." The partners enlisted various media to cover the event. Citizens were asked to answer simple questions about their knowledge of and attitudes toward domestic violence. Six hundred questionnaires were completed and the results compiled and analyzed. The Romanian partners held a subsequent campaign on their own in 2003, after the official graduation of their Healthy Communities partnership.

The Office for Women in Constanta officially opened December 1, 2000 to advocate on behalf of women, provide a voice in the legislative process, and support community health promotion activities. The office houses a domestic violence hotline and serves as a walk-in referral center for victims of domestic violence. The Constanta partners developed a strategy for communicating with the mass media about the activities of the office, including press coverage for the opening ceremony and distribution of educational materials. The Office for Women prints and distributes informational flyers about their activities to mailboxes in the Constanta community. The Office for Women continues to operate today, with funding from the Constanta County Council and other donors, including their former partners at the Humana Foundation in Louisville. In 2004, the Constanta Office for Women recorded 242 new cases of domestic violence.

The Romanian partners have been working to affect policy changes at the Ministry of Health, to institute a country-wide domestic violence program based on the model initiated through the Healthy Communities process in Constanta.

Tools and Resources:

• Constanta Domestic Violence Resource materials (developed by the Constanta/Louisville Partnership)
• March 2000 Street Campaign Survey Results
• March 2003 Street Campaign Survey Results (PowerPoint; also in PDF format)
• Constanta Office for Women 2004 Annual Report

Additional Reading:

• Impact of the Healthy Communities Partnership: Empowering Women’s Health in Constanta, Romania (PowerPoint presentation; also in PDF format)
• Petrzalka Woman Escapes Abusive Relationship / Giving Women the Strength to Break the Cycle of Violence (AIHA Success Story, in English and Russian)
• Healthy Cities Start from Healthy Communities: AIHA Partners Share Experience in Empowering Health Promotion and Social Safety (AIHA Connections, December 2003)