The CHANGES Program
Over the course of 46 years Community Against Violence has developed and implemented many services and programs, the CHANGES program is a state-approved and reviewed 52- session batterers intervention and women who use force programs that seek to break an individual's cycle of violence through intervention, self-examination and re-education.
Our group facilitators are breaking a life-long cycle of violence that may have spanned several generations in a family requiring a slow measured re-ordering of learned perceptions about power, control, fear, jealousy and violence.
- The 52-session structure of the CHANGES curriculum is intentional. Domestic violence offenders have deeply rooted influences and beliefs. They must be given time to take a long, hard look at the personal, societal and cultural forces behind their actions, acknowledge they want to change, and work toward that goal.
- Through confidential group sessions, group facilitators encourage offenders to hold themselves accountable for the choices they have made, not just recently but throughout their lives. Among other elements facilitators stress the importance of minimizing and eliminating victim-blaming and, instead, focus on accepting responsibility for what they have done.
- Participants come to know that they are safe to "come clean," and that other group members support and encourage each other to develop pro-societal behaviors.
- Group sessions stress accountability, yet do so without argument, judgment, shaming or accusations. As they feel safer and safer in the group, offenders become more and more truthful.
- Participants come to see how they model violence for others in their lives, such as during dating, within the family, and as a parent. They come to see how their parents behaved often translates into how they act, which now reflects upon their children and extended family members.
- No one is a "graduate" of CHANGES. Like recovering alcoholics, reformed batterers make a life-long commitment to abstain from abuse of all kinds, and to all people. Many participants come back to the group sessions to reaffirm their own commitment and to encourage others.
- Success in the CHANGES program means learning how to change controlling behavior, redefining a false notion of “manhood,” developing a sense of cooperative decision-making with their partners, and feeling authentic empathy for victims.
CHANGES currently has approximately 75 participants from Taos and surrounding communities. They split into five different groups and meet once a week via Zoom. Most of the participants come because they have been ordered to participate through referrals from the court system.
In conjunction with the once-a-week online sessions, one-to-one contact outside the group is an important component of CHANGES. Program staff check in with participants to see how they are feeling, how life is going outside the group, and if they need additional support.
Every quarter, CAV formally checks in with CHANGES participants: What are you learning?
Are your needs getting met? What are your thoughts when you get angry? Who is an outside support?
"We see each other once a week, and then I check in periodically," says group facilitator David Weaver. "What really makes me feel good is when I see the 'wheels' turning in someone's head as they begin to truly see what's going on and how they can change. For me, I have tremendous respect for all these people who want to make a difficult change in their lives ... and to model those new behaviors to others."
CHANGES is a vital part of CAV's services to survivors of domestic violence, and an important contributor to the organization's commitment to ending violence in Taos and making it a safer place for all to live. For more information, go to taoscav.org or call (575) 758-9888.
