Battered Women's Support Groups

Many domestic violence programs offer support groups for battered women. These groups provide a community of support. They break through the isolation that battering has imposed on each battered woman, and contribute substantially to the safety planning and personal empowerment of each participant.

Mutual Support Groups

The philosophy of offering self-help services is that battered women can best help and support each other; that although they are disempowered and controlled by the violence inflicted by their partners, they are not disabled or inadequate persons; and that women can offer each other critical thinking and support in the development of survival strategies.

Mutual support groups offered by battered women's programs typically include the following:

  • Analysis of violence against women: its causes, supports, and inhibitors and the range of men's controlling and abusive behaviors.
  • Lethality assessment of the batterer.
  • Safety-planning assistance.
  • Self-awareness, self-confidence and self-care building.
  • Information about community resources and legal protections.
  • Collective problem-solving opportunities.
  • Advocacy and assertiveness skills development.
  • Friendship and support networking.
  • Multi-cultural, anti-racist, anti-homophobic education.
  • Values clarification.
  • Strategizing for violence and control-free relationships.
  • Opportunities to help other battered women.
  • Planning for self-determination and empowerment.
  • Examination of sexism and its relationship to the violence and control inflicted by batterers.
  • Specific supports critical for disabled women, older women, non-English speaking women, teen-aged women, women of color, and women parenting dependent children.
To locate Hotlines / Shelters / Support Groups in your area, check the index in the front of your white pages phone directory under Community Service Numbers or Crisis Information.
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This information was given to me as a handout by the Angels at SARC - The Sexual Assault/Spouse Abuse Resource Center in BelAir, MD, where I went for assistance. I don't know the original source of the information to be able to give proper credit to it's originator. I wish I did.

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