Community Readiness to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence in Bexar County, Texas

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe the Community Readiness Model implemented by the San Antonio Safe Family Coalition in Bexar County, Texas, a coordinated community response to prevent intimate partner violence. The project used a participatory action process to (a) determine the city's and county's stage of readiness to prevent intimate partner violence; (b) identify differences in the city and county by dividing the area into sectors for the assessment; (c) engage the community in determining the accuracy and usefulness of the results of the assessment; (d) develop targeted strategies to move the city and county to a higher stage of readiness for prevention of intimate partner violence; and (e) evaluate the results of the project.