Domestic, Sexual, and Gender-based Abuse Virtual Community of Practice (vCOP)
Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Abuse (DSGBA) is a major societal challenge. Networking, collaboration and knowledge sharing in the DSGBA field is fragmented. There are different types of knowledge needed to close the gaps in the response to DSGBA: experiential, policy, academic, professional and front-line practitioners’ knowledge. Experiential knowledge and research findings are not translated into practice, policy, and legislation quickly enough. The price of this disconnect has been paid by the victims of DSGBA, some of whom have lost their lives.
In 2018, Haven Horizons developed a collaborative partnership with the Technological University of Shannon (TUS) to establish a DSGBA Research and Knowledge Centre. One outcome was the development of a DSGBA virtual Community of Practice (vCOP).
The virtual Community of Practice will:
- facilitate networking opportunities
- provide a platform to share experiential knowledge
- facilitate collaboration between academics, practitioners and policy makers
- accelerate knowledge transfer that informs policy, practice and legislation
- provide discussion forums and events
- provide an opportunity to collaborate on resources
- promote engaged research and effective research translation in the field of DSGBA
The DSGBA virtual Community of Practice will also facilitate networking opportunities for national and international researchers seeking to develop partnerships for future gender-based abuse collaborative proposals and research projects.
Haven Horizons’ Community of Practice is underpinned by the Integrated Knowledge Translation Capacity Framework developed by Dr Jacqui Cameron (University of Wollongong). This framework provides a plan that outlines the key actions that need to be taken to enhance knowledge translation in a DSGBA research network.
Two research groups from TUS, Computing and Informatics Research Group (CaIR) and Social Sciences Connexions, have informed a multidisciplinary approach to the development of the Community of Practice.
The development of the DSGBA Community of Practice was initially funded by the Irish Research Council’s New Foundations programme 2021/ 2022.