Community Response to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Mexico City

Abstract

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is one of the most prevalent types of violence in Mexico, and in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of reports has increased. The response from the justice system has failed to provide safe and efficient answers, and the services and programs for victims and survivors of IPV have failed to consider the efficiency of working with communities. In seeking a solution to an urgent problem, a change of approach is needed, and the present project proposes to place victims' needs in the center and build with them a community-based response (CBR) while aiming to structural changes. This approach involves many strategic stakeholders to build a network to provide a more comprehensive response by providing literacy in financial, social services, legal, and other alternatives to IPV directly to victims and survivors, based on popular education. Popular education is a theory and a praxis with essential Latin American roots to promote organization and cooperation between and within the community based on the principles of a continuum dialogic praxis, non-exclusionary, and articulation of shared objectives to transform the reality to one more fair and dignify for the most disadvantaged.
     Another goal of the project is to promote the participation of the community by promoting the integration of at least one committee that addresses the issue of IPV, promote the coordination and intervention over the services and demands of IPV victims and survivors and promote the implementation of concrete actions for women to live free of violence in Mexico City. The project aims to provide capacity-building alternatives and gather data to transform from a generic response to IPV to an intersectional and emergency adequate due to the intensification of violence and inequities within the Covid-19 pandemic. The community-based response proposed in this project is a three-year learning space and community-led process that learns and adapts from the findings of recognized effective models to address IPV in other countries like SASA! and TOSTAN. This is the first time a CBR based on successful experiences will be adapted to address IPV to be implemented in Mexico City. CBR is a needed alternative to face the urgent increment and isolation of victims and survivors of IPV with the goal not only to provide alternatives for women to exit from violence but also to be a part of a transformative process where communities engage and participate in working together to change the reality of violence as something normal.