Core Concepts

Public Health Models

 

Overall, public health is concerned with protecting the health of entire populations. Working at a population level helps to bring about the greatest health benefits to the greatest number of people.

Social Ecological Model 

The social-ecological model (SEM) is a framework used in public health and violence prevention for understanding the range of factors that influence health and well-being. The SEM suggests that individual behavior is shaped by factors at multiple levels of the environment: the individual, relationship, community, and societal. The SEM helps us to identify root causes of violence and helps to identify and plan potential prevention strategies.  

  • This brief table from the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs (WCSAP) provides examples or prevention activities across the Social Ecological Model.

    This brief handout from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers additional information about the SEM and examples of prevention strategies at each level of influence.

  • Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory is the foundation of the Social Ecological Model we use in public health and violence prevention. This video breaks down Ecological Systems Theory.

 

Health Promotion

The goal of health promotion is to address and prevent the root cause of poor health, not just focus on treatment and cure. Health promotion strengthens protective factors, promotes resilience, bolsters developmental assets, and values social emotional learning. If we apply the “public health” and “health promotion” concepts to SV/DV, we can see how the focus on addressing the root causes, as opposed to response, is at the center.

 

Levels of Prevention

Primary prevention strategies are designed to promote healthy behaviors and communities by shifting attitudes, behaviors, and norms that support and perpetuate the root causes of violence. Secondary and tertiary prevention, often referred to as our advocacy direct services, aim to improve short- and long-term outcomes for survivors (and perpetrators). When primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention are used together, they create a comprehensive response to SV/DV.

While awareness building and risk reduction are activities that may support or reinforce our ongoing prevention efforts, they are not considered prevention themselves because they focus on victimization as opposed to preventing perpetration and do not shift our existing attitudes, knowledge, or behavior to address the root causes of perpetration.