ASAP Project | Assessing Safer Attorney Practices

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is common among separating parents in the U.S., especially among those unable to develop custody agreements/parenting plans on their own and require judicial intervention.

To equip legal professionals with a systematic, empirically-driven way to identify and respond to clients’ abuse experiences, the Battered Women’s Justice Project established the SAFeR program, which includes a framework, training curricula, and practical tools for handing IPV in these cases.  

The primary objective of the ASAP Project is to evaluate the effectiveness of the SAFeR program. We are currently recruiting attorneys from across the U.S. to receive SAFeR training.

Participants will do one of the following:   

  • Participate in a 3-hour virtual SAFeR training; participate in an optional follow-up training session; complete a series of online surveys; participate in optional interviews about your experience handling IPV in child custody cases

OR

  • View a brief IPV-related online training module; complete a series of online surveys; participate in optional interviews about your experience handling IPV in child custody cases (SAFeR training will be offered to these participants immediately after study completion) 

Participants will receive CLE credits at no cost to them for participating in SAFeR training, as well as compensation for completing the follow-up surveys and optional interviews

This study has been approved by the University of Illinois Institutional Review Board, Protocol #22599 (irb@illinois.edu). 

Questions? Email us at asap-study@illinois.edu or call us at (217) 333-6601.


Funding provided by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Award #15PNIJ-21-GG-02800-REVA and ACES Office of Research at the University of Illinois.