2024 ICADV Fall Conference

Many men in the Abuse Intervention Programs (AIP’s) are resistant to material, but perhaps no topic brings about as much controversy as male privilege. Participants may feel like a victim to the court systems, their jobs, and grander political schemes. They carry profound misconceptions about feminism and often refuse to introspect the ways in which patriarchy harms them, much less those marginalized in society. Many poor and working class men have sexist ideology engrained from birth, and yet they do not realize the supposed privileges patriarchy grants them in their work or social settings. He may constantly feel like a failure, blaming himself and the women around him for not living up to the patriarchal ideal. As bell hooks quotes in The Will to Change, “As long as he is attacking women and not sexism or capitalism, he helps to maintain a system that allows him few, if any, benefits or privileges. He is an oppressor. He is an enemy to women. He is also an enemy to himself. He is also oppressed.” Our interpersonal interactions are rife with control, from the boss to workers, owner to producer, landlord to tenant, teacher to student, and governor to governed. In an act of displacement, many men unconsciously displace the controlling atmospheres of their work onto their wives, children, and/or pets. Socialization from male capitalists ensures that exploitation and oppression happens in the home, not in the workplace. Intervention groups can redirect attention to the oppression of authoritarian hierarchy embedded within patriarchy and capitalism, thus combatting the beliefs of scapegoating abused victims. The stated proposal seeks to analyze sociological perspectives on abuse and gain insight into tactics to understand male privilege among men who abuse.  

At ICADV we built a youth council with the intention of inviting youth to move power with us, using their lived experiences. Over the last 3 years, we’ve seen where we’re successful at sharing that power and where we struggle. This session will help you assess how you share and move power with the youth you engage. We will offer tools and opportunities for reflection to access the power sharing in these spaces created by adults for youth. ICADV’s youth council will participate in a collaboration to offer their perspectives and expertise!

This workshop is to bring light to our criminal justice system. Does it need to be reformed? Does our justice system fit our morals as human beings and help lower the number of domestic violence victims and deaths?

At the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, we believe that inequities in power between groups of people in our communities support and tolerate multiple forms of violence. We recognize that these social hierarchies play out across multiple identities—gender, ethnicity, orientation, age and ability among many others—resulting in disproportionate experiences of violence among marginalized groups.  
We believe that social exclusion emerges from these hierarchies and is an indicator of inequity in our communities.  
 
While we work to address the social expressions of inequity, we believe that it’s also critical to change the deeper roots of the problem by addressing the structures, policies and practices that sustain divisions.  
With this workshop, participants will engage in an interactive activity to connect with one another and with their own experiences of social exclusion. Next we will discuss the connections between social exclusion and violence. Finally, participants will engage in the “Fun for All” activity from ICADV’s prevention toybox to generate strategies for creating community spaces with structures, policies, practices and norms that support full, safe and equitable participation for all community members.