Strategies To Respond to Intimate Violence Effectively (STRIVE)

STRIVE HMRF Program Staff Interview Guide

Review consent information (~3 minutes)

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. My name is [NAME] and this is [NAME], and we work for Child Trends, a research organization based in Maryland. We are part of the team that is testing the CUES (confidentiality, universal education + empowerment, support) approach as part of the Strategies To Respond to Intimate Violence Effectively (STRIVE) study. The STRIVE study is funded by the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) and overseen by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), both offices within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) that is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We are partnering with Futures Without Violence, a non-profit health and social justice organization, on this project.

We are speaking with you today to learn about your experience using the CUES approach. As we’re talking, please keep in mind there are no right or wrong answers to our questions. You’re the expert and we want to hear your honest opinions–positive or negative. Honest feedback will help us the most. If there is a question you do not want to answer, please let us know and we will skip to the next question. Your participation is voluntary, and you are free to stop the interview at any time. However, your opinions are important to us, so we hope you will stay for the whole interview. This interview will last about an hour.

What you say here will be kept private, which means that your name will not be shared or associated with your opinions, and we will not identify who participated in the interviews. Your responses will be combined with responses from others who are participating in these interviews in published documents. Additionally, quotes from today may be included in published documents, but the quotes will not be attributed to you or your organization without your permission.

We will take notes and record the interview, so we can make sure that we don’t miss important details. If you would like us to turn off the recorder at any point, please ask and we will do so. Only the study team will have access to the recordings. Once we transcribe the interviews and finalize our notes, we will delete the recordings.

Have you had a chance to read the consent form [STAFF] sent by email?

[IF NO, add document to meeting chat and say:] Here is a copy of the consent form. I’ll give you a few minutes to read over it. Please let me know if you have any questions about it.

[IF YES]: Do you have any questions about the information in the consent form or your rights as a research participant? [Answer any questions.]

As a reminder, the consent form includes contact information for the Study Director as well as the Institutional Review Board that is in charge of ensuring our study follows certain guidelines regarding participant rights. You can contact them with any comments or concerns about participating in this study.

Because this is a federally funded project, I have to read a couple of sentences to you before we begin. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for the described information collection is 0970-0531 and the expiration date is 09/30/2025. If you have comments regarding this estimated interview length or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing the interview length, please send them to Sam Ciaravino at Child Trends, 12300 Twinbrook Parkway, Suite 235, Rockville, MD 20852; Attn: OMB-PRA 0970-0531.

Do you have any questions before we get started?

Do you agree to participate in this interview?

Do you agree to be recorded?

Introduction (~5 minutes)

We’d like to start by hearing a bit more about you and your program participants.

1. Please tell us a little bit about your role at [PROGRAM NAME].

2. To what extent is domestic violence an issue that your participants are facing?

CUES Implementation (~7 minutes)

That’s great–thanks so much for sharing. Now we have a few questions about how using the CUES approach went for you. When we say “CUES approach” we mean the conversation you had with participants using the “[NAME]” safety card. [SHOW IMAGE]

3. First, how well did the CUES approach fit in your program structure?

4. Please walk me through the process that [PROGRAM] used for incorporating CUES.

Perceptions about CUES (~15-17 minutes)

Great–it’s helpful to hear about how you used the CUES approach. Now we’d like to hear a little bit about what you and your participants thought about the CUES approach.

5. Let’s start by looking at the safety card. What do you think about it overall?

• [Probe, if needed]: What do you find particularly useful or helpful about the card?

• [Probe, if needed]: What could be improved? (For example, information that could be added or removed.)

6. Generally, how did the CUES conversations go with your participants?

• [Probe, if needed]: What went well?

• [Probe, if needed]: What was challenging?

• [Probe, if needed]: What could help address these challenges?

7. How did participants react to the conversations and the safety cards?

• [If participants were engaged]: What do you think participants particularly liked about the conversations and safety cards?

• [If participants weren’t engaged]: What do you think could make these conversations more engaging for participants?

8. How, if at all, has the way you respond to domestic violence disclosures changed since you began using the CUES approach?

Can you share an example of how you’ve been able to support a participant through the CUES approach?

9. Since receiving the CUES training and using the CUES approach, how prepared do you feel to support participants who disclose that they are experiencing domestic violence?

• [If respondent feels prepared]: What has helped you feel more prepared to respond to disclosures?

• [If respondent does not feel prepared]: What would help you feel more prepared to respond to disclosures in the future?

10. If another program was considering using the CUES approach, what advice or recommendations would you give them about implementing this approach?

CUES training (~5 minutes)

Now we’d like to hear a little more about the CUES training you participated in in [MONTH].

11. What were your overall impressions of the training?

• [Probe, if needed]: What did you like or find helpful about the training?

• [Probe, if needed]: What would you change about the training?

• [Probe, if respondent felt unprepared]: How could the training have helped staff feel more prepared for using CUES?

Partnerships (~7 minutes)

Now we have a few questions about your partnerships with other organizations that may help provide support related to domestic violence.

12. Who is your local domestic violence partner? How would you describe your partnership with them?

13. Has [DV partner] been involved in CUES training or implementation at all?

14. How has your partnership with [DV partner] changed since you began using the CUES approach (if it has changed)?

Addressing and preventing domestic violence (~10 minutes)

We’re getting towards the end of our questions now. We want to shift gears a little bit and hear about what may be helpful to your program/other HMRF programs that want to build capacity around addressing domestic violence with their participants.

15. Aside from CUES, what other approaches does [PROGRAM] use to address domestic violence with participants?

• How well do you feel those approaches work?

16. What are three things you would like to know more about in terms of addressing domestic violence with program participants?

17. In a perfect world where resources were not an issue, what would you like to see happen at [PROGRAM NAME] related to preventing and addressing domestic violence among participants?

Wrap up (~2 minutes)

And lastly,

18. Is there anything that we didn’t ask about today related to CUES or addressing domestic violence more generally that you want us to know?

19. Do you have any questions for us?

THANK YOU!