What will it take to end domestic violence? Positive attitudes and beliefs about love without abuse, support for healthy people and strong communities—and the involvement of many different kinds of people.

When community members get involved at the grassroots level, they can create powerful, positive change to prevent domestic violence. This year, TCFV is engaging in a Grassroots Micro-Grant Project to support grassroots efforts and learn more about community engagement to end domestic violence. This project is possible with support from the Ms. Foundation for Women, which believes in a vision of a just and safe world where power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, class, sexual orientation, disability or age. We’re excited to share what we learn over the next year about successful strategies that get people involved in ending domestic violence and creating peace and safety in their communities.

The recipients of the micro-grants, awarded in May of 2007, are:

Café Revolucion
Café Revolucion confronts taboo topics in the Edinburg community—issues like domestic violence, homophobia, and child slavery—through research, community services, educational events, and short publications. Their Voices Against Violence campaign will create awareness and foster action plans to address these issues throughout the Rio Grande Valley.
www.caferevolucion.org

Collective Harmony and Keeping Hands Off
These two grassroots organizations will work together to address domestic violence in the predominantly African-American Acres Home community of Houston. They will collaborate to sponsor workshops and awareness events that explain the dynamics of dating abuse, domestic abuse and acquaintance rape. They will also present preventive strategies at these workshops and events to combat sexual assault and stalking in their community.

Delivered Out Ministries
Delivered Out Ministries aims to educate teen girls aged 12-18 about dating and domestic violence and sexual assault. Their project, Teens Against Domestic Abuse (TADA!), will equip the young women to be advocates in their various schools and school districts, churches and communities. Once trained, the teen advocates will be encouraged to plan and organize school and community prevention programs, with the assistance of Delivered Out Ministries.

Family Care Connections
Family Care Connections will collaborate with their local shelter to advertise and create two community-wide domestic violence prevention workshops in the Dallas area. These workshops will gather community input on prevention and be a first step in creating action plans to prevent violence in Dallas’ underserved African-American community.

Familias con Voz – Eagle Pass
Familias con Voz aims to educate families in the Eagle Pass community on the richness of their culture and on healthy relationship techniques to keep their families strong. Through their Familias Saludables (Healthy Families) project, Familias con Voz will hold six three-hour dialogue sessions with community members. These sessions will provide helpful examples/models of healthy relationships and exercises that promote healthy relationships.

Familias con Voz – Presidio
Like its sister organization in Eagle Pass, this grassroots organization aims to educate families in the Presidio community on the richness of their culture and on healthy relationship techniques to keep their families strong. Through their Familias Saludables (Healthy Families) project, Familias con Voz will hold six three-hour dialogue sessions with community members. These sessions will provide helpful examples/models of healthy relationships and exercises that promote healthy relationships.

Men Against Violence (MAV) – Texas State University
MAV - Texas State is a peer education organization combating men’s violence against women and others on the Texas State University campus. MAV plans to identify five universities with great potential for establishing a MAV chapter, narrow down their search to three candidates, and work to build chapters on those campuses. They will also create a support system by connecting existing chapters to those being established.

Men Against Violence – University of North Texas
MAV – UNT is a peer education organization combating men’s violence against women and others on the University of North Texas campus. Work to provide courses to members of faith communities in partnership with community churches focusing on raising awareness about men’s violence against women and helping individuals think about and plan steps they can take in solving this problem.
orgs.unt.edu/mav/

Men’s Resource Center of South Texas
Located in the Valley, MRC of South Texas is one of Texas’ only active men’s nonviolence organizations. Through TCFV’s micro-grant, the MRC will conduct a 26-session curriculum called Young Men’s Work: Stopping Violence and Building Community with 10 incoming high school juniors and seniors from the Harlingen area. The young men will complete two projects targeted at their male peers - an anti-violence event and a football program advertisement, both created by and executed by the students.
www.mrcofsouthtexas.org

Out Youth
Out Youth is a grassroots organization dedicated to providing services and domestic violence education to LGBTQI youth in the Austin area. Their Anti-Violence Project will engage LGBTQI youth in the development of a media campaign, which will include print and electronic media and live presentations to community groups, geared towards creating community awareness of LGBTQI issues.
www.outyouth.org

Shalom Bayit
Shalom Bayit’s members are volunteers from the community who are involved in both Jewish communal and domestic violence work. They will offer their curriculum on healthy relationship techniques and dating violence to Houston-area Jewish youth and work to hold community-wide presentations and workshops on domestic violence prevention for the volunteers and the wider community.
www.jfshouston.org

Women Healing and Empowering Women (WHEW)
WHEW is a grassroots initiative addressing domestic violence and re-entry after prison for women of color in the Harris county community. WHEW will work to organize a three day event that will showcase films, panel discussions, and educational materials that expose the negative aspects of Hip Hop culture, women’s negative misconceptions of themselves (especially women of color), and the larger connection to domestic violence, homelessness, and the increasing numbers of women going to prison.

If you are interested in the administration of microgrants for community engagement, please call us for more information, 512-794-1133. Feel free to read and adapt these documents for your use.

Application | Application (Spanish) | Guidelines | Guidelines (Spanish)