Constituencies

THE NETWORK
Close to Home’s work involves three main volunteer constituencies who together form the Close to Home Network.  Network members are individuals who recognize the importance of domestic violence and its impact on the community, place a priority in developing intervention and prevention strategies to the issue, and are coming together to play their part in this movement.  The three core Network constituencies are:

The Close to Home Youth Team
The Close to Home Youth Team is a group of local high school aged volunteer organizers who are committed to raising awareness about domestic violence to their peers in the youth community.  Specifically, the Youth Team understands the impact that teen dating violence has on the lives of their peers and friends and have dedicated themselves to addressing this issue extensively: what teen dating violence is, how to recognize it, how to stay safe from it, and what local resources exist to help those hurting in their relationships.

Resident Volunteer Networks
Resident Volunteer Networks are comprised of community residents ready to tackle this issue in their family and social networks. Through Close to Home’s facilitation, Network members employ community-building strategies to talk with and support people they know that are living with domestic violence, and are developing ways to increase understanding of the impact of domestic violence among their social circles. Resident Volunteer Networks also inform Close to Home about what supports and resources from organizations and agencies are needed by the community in order to safely and effective respond to domestic violence.

The Stakeholders Coalition
Collaborations with other community leaders and organizations is essential to the work of Close to Home.  We believe that making change on the issue of Close to Home requires working with a community’s residents, and also a community’s institutions.  To prevent domestic violence and transform social norms, ALL areas of a community need to be engaged.  To that end, Close to Home is working closely with a number of community partners to raise awareness on how domestic violence affects all levels of the community, including their constituents.  Our community collaborations help us to spread domestic violence awareness to a larger community as well as educate community leaders on the impact of domestic violence on their own constituents.  Our work with community partners is helping to ensure that domestic violence prevention is on everyone’s agenda.