Centering the lived experience for domestic violence prevention

Reimagine Lab was a unique collaboration to uncover new ways to prevent domestic violence. It created a space for 16 fellows, inside and outside the domestic violence field, to collaborate on solutions. Some of Reimagine Lab’s leaders and funder Blue Shield of California Foundation recently brought its results to life at the 2022 National Coalition Against Domestic Violence conference in St. Louis.

“Reimagine Lab fellows share a commitment to ensuring that solutions are deeply rooted in the lived experiences,” said Foundation Senior Program Officer Lucia Corral Peña. The fellows applied human-centered design, a problem-solving approach, to understand human behavior and develop solutions for those directly impacted by domestic violence.

Fellow Sandra Henriquez, CEO of Valor, explained that by engaging community influencers, “prevention work can belong to everyone, not just an elite group of experts working in the domestic violence field.” Sonya Young Aadam, CEO of California Black Women’s Health Project, another Reimagine Lab fellow, presented “Anti-Violence Ventures.” She said that the Black community acknowledges Anti-Violence Ventures (AVV) as “effectively meeting its emotional health needs.”

The audience then had an opportunity to experience using a human-centered collaboration tool, STEEP (social, technology, environment, economic, and political). Small groups shared their findings, and the presentation ended with a question-and-answer session.

Find more about Reimagine Lab.

Presentation and downloads

Download the presentation slides

Download the STEEP tool