Copyright © 2004 Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse
Table of Contents
This document highlights the activities and achievements of the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (MINCAVA) Electronic Clearinghouse during 2002. This report provides information about program funding, organizational structure, site usage, and changes made to the website in the past year.
MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse began as a component of the Violence Education Project, one of MINCAVA's first projects. The Clearinghouse has evolved into one of the most comprehensive, widely used resources for violence related material on the Internet today. The Clearinghouse provides an extensive pool of resources about various types of violence, survivor and service provider resources, educational syllabi, published research, funding sources, upcoming training events, and searchable databases of training manuals, videos and other educational resources.
While the MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse was originally geared toward higher education professionals, it soon became a primary source of violence related information for all types of users eager for cutting-edge resources that were easily accessible. Now, over 1,000 users a day log on to the MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse. Hundreds of people use the research and training resources in order to respond to violence-related problems they encounter in their work each day. Tracking 150,000-200,000 "hits" per month, the user pool stretches far beyond originally intended service providers and educators to encompass faith leaders, business professionals, victims/survivors, and concerned citizens form all disciplines and geographic regions around the globe.
The MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse has received grant support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as part of the National Network for Applied Research on Violence Prevention (the Network). The Network is an integral part of the Foundation's Next Generations initiative that seeks to prevent child abuse, youth violence, and adult domestic violence in demonstration communities and across the country. We are currently seeking continued support.
With future funding, MINCAVA staff could expand the site to:
Feature a dynamic website with online news, education, localized resources, discussion, and current policy about violence.
Deliver classes and conferences about violence prevention that blend face-to-face training with introductory and follow-up online activities.
Create online, multimedia, educational modules targeted to professionals such as judges, prosecutors, child protection workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, counselors, and faith leaders- initial curriculum priorities would include workplace violence, the rise of hate violence, increasing violence in our schools, the overlap of child maltreatment and woman battering, with additional topics added over time.
Become an outreach facilitator in the violence prevention community by connecting local and global organizations through conferences, teleconferences, etc.
The MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse is maintained by approximately 1.25 FTE staff, which includes one full-time Web Information Coordinator, a 15% time Administrative Assistant, and 10% time Executive Director. A virtual advisory board comprised of professionals working in various violence prevention capacities advises portions of the site. The board members offer suggestions on domestic violence, child abuse, and youth violence prevention resources and website layout as the Web Information Coordinator requests.
The Web Information Coordinator manages the daily operations of the site including weblink, event, job, and guest book submission authorization, answering technical information requests, finding and correcting dead links, coding new documents, and adding new pages and information. The Web Information Coordinator serves 100% time and supports the MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse's expansion of resources in the area of primary prevention, child abuse, youth violence, adult domestic violence and related areas.
The Administrative Assistant serves 15% time and is responsible for mailing correspondence and entering event information into the Event calendar database utility.
The Executive Director, Jeff Edleson, supervises the two staff working on the Electronic Clearinghouse.
MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse seeks to:
Help service providers who encounter people affected by violence in their work by providing resources that help them better recognize and address violence and abuse through training manuals and materials.
Help faculties of higher education institutions better prepare the upcoming workforce to address and prevent violence and abuse in their fields by providing educational resources such as syllabi, curricula, and a variety of classroom resource referrals.
Help students find information about violence and abuse so they can learn, address, and prevent violence and abuse in their lives as well as in the lives of those they encounter in their careers.
Help create policy and social change by providing a forum for concerned people to learn and share information about the devastating effects of violence in their homes, schools, businesses, and communities.
Help people directly affected by violence and abuse cope with its effects and/or escape the abuse by providing information for assessment, referrals to service providers (internationally), guides for friends, families and employers, and intervention and treatment research findings.
MINCAVA seeks to meet these goals by providing an accessible, user-friendly website that charges no fee for usage.
MINCAVA staff members produce and solicit content for the site. The site is filled with papers, reports, research findings, syllabi, curricula, presentations, training manuals, referral sources to service providers, links to other sites, and searchable databases of journals, videos, books, and other reference material.
In 2002, MINCAVA added both intensive and thought provoking sites to the already extensive list. These sites included research from a number of international sources as well as manuals and evaluations of existing programs that address domestic violence related topics. In addition to investigating links to important sites that address domestic violence, MINCAVA created a comprehensive list of sexual assault and domestic violence coalitions that allows users to gain quick access to organizations in any state.
Examples of new links include: Media and Communications Strategies to End Violence Against Women, Violation of Human Rights of women in custody, Evaluating Domestic Violence, A Comparative Study of Women Trafficked in the Migration Process, Violence against disabled women, Domestic Violence in Later Life, Children Exposed to Violence: Current Status, Gaps, and Research Priorities, Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Violence, Gender-based violence in refugee, internally displaced, and post-conflict settings.
MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse provides information to a broad user pool, which includes but is not limited to: victims/survivors, secondary victims, perpetrators, advocates, teachers/professors, students, attorneys, law enforcement officers, faith leaders, social service providers, activists, doctors, human resource personnel and more.
MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse serves a growing national and international audience. We served, on average, over 1,255 unique users each day in 2002, for a total of approximately 455,450 visitors. This is an increase of 53,950 users from 2001. October, November, and April represented the months of most usage. Users come from countries across the globe, with the great majority, (66%), from the United States. Other countries visiting our site in 2002 included Canada (second highest user), United Kingdom, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Israel, and Spain. This information is based on where the domain name of the visitor is registered, and may not always be an accurate identifier of the actual geographic location of this visitor (for example, while a vast majority of .com domain names are from the United States, there is a small minority of domain names that exist outside of the United States.
The following general statistic tables indicate the total monthly and yearly activity for the MINCAVA Electric Clearinghouse in 2002.
Table 1. Site Usage
| -- | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Av # of user sessions per day | 1,036 | 1,394 | 1,437 | 1,622 | 1,257 | 958 | 992 | 947 | 1,129 | 1,465 | 1,625 | 1,193 | 1,255 |
| Av user session length | 14:36 | 10:36 | 8:35 | 8:56 | 13:10 | 15:22 | 10:36 | 11:22 | 14:18 | 13:33 | 10:43 | 12:31 | 12:01 |
| % User sessions from US | 67.88% | 69.16% | 67.80% | 67.07% | 65.26% | 64.97% | 66.39% | 65.82% | 65.70% | 64.82% | 65.81% | 67.13% | 66.48% |
| % Internat'l user sessions | 12.04% | 10.83% | 12.20% | 11.51% | 13.46% | 14.13% | 12.36% | 13.55% | 12.44% | 12.74% | 13.67% | 12.49% | 12.62% |
| % User sessions of unknown origin | 20.08% | 20.01% | 19.99% | 21.41% | 21.26% | 20.88% | 21.24% | 20.61% | 21.85% | 22.42% | 20.51% | 20.36% | 20.88% |
| Av # of page views per day | 2,530 | 3,097 | 3,051 | 3,438 | 2,885 | 2,410 | 2,308 | 2,227 | 3,377 | 3,844 | 3,587 | 2,845 | 2,967 |
| Av # of hits per day | 5,377 | 7,311 | 7,457 | 8,334 | 6,722 | 5,263 | 5,110 | 4,700 | 6,417 | 8,072 | 7,999 | 5,929 | 6,558 |
| # of successful hits for entire site | 166,712 | 204,727 | 231,180 | 250,048 | 208,389 | 147,378 | 158,422 | 145,711 | 192,524 | 250,239 | 239,976 | 183,806 | 198,259 |
The table above illustrates the number of user sessions per day. This data does not inform us about the number of unique people accessing the site per day, but does provide insight about how many times per day users conduct a session on the site. A `user' is considered a unique person accessing the site. A user commits `hits' on the site when he/she visits various pages on the website. Therefore, one user may commit several hits during his/her user session.
Table 2. Top 10 downloaded PDF documents: January 1, 2002 - December 31, 2002
| PDF Documents | Total Number of Downloads |
|---|---|
| Peace and Non-Violence Curriculum http://www.mincava.umn.edu/papers/Book.pdf | 1417 |
| Drug Resistant Properties http://www.mincava.umn.edu/papers/drugres.pdf | 1012 |
| Kids Killing Kids http://www.mincava.umn.edu/papers/kids.pdf | 845 |
| Child Abuse Prevention Studies Newsletter 01-02 http://www.mincava.umn.edu/CAPS/newsltr01-02.pdf | 512 |
| Child Abuse Prevention Studies Brochure 2000 http://www.mincava.umn.edu/CAPS/brochure-2000.pdf | 452 |
| Child Abuse Prevention Studies Seminar Matrix http://www.mincava.umn.edu/CAPS/Seminars/EdlesonMatrix.pdf | 418 |
| Child Abuse Prevention Studies Newsletter 2000 http://www.mincava.umn.edu/CAPS/news2000.pdf | 353 |
| MINCAVA Newsletter, 1999 http://www.mincava.umn.edu/center/newslet99.pdf | 339 |
| MINCAVA Winter Newsletter, 1998 http://www.mincava.umn.edu/center/winter98.pdf | 259 |
| The Lind Between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering http://www.mincava.umn.edu/center/link.pdf | 240 |
Table 3. Top 10 downloaded Microsoft Word documents: January 1, 2002 - December 31, 2002
| Microsoft Word Documents | Total Number of Downloads |
|---|---|
| Helping Children Who Witness Domestic Violence: A Guide for Parents http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/materials/instructor.doc | 2,296 |
| Limits and Risks of Programs for Wife Batterers http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/limits/limits.doc | 927 |
| Should Childhood Child Exposure to Adult Domestic Violence be Defined as Child Maltreatment Under the Law? http://www.mincava.umn.edu/link/documents/shouldch/shouldch.doc | 818 |
| The Health Impacts on Adult Women of Childhood Sexual Violence Before the Age of Twelve Years http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/report/report.doc | 697 |
| Video Resource List http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/films/dvchild/dvchild.doc | 568 |
| Paper on Family Violence http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/familyviolence/familyviolence.doc | 523 |
| Overlap of Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment in U.S.A. State Civil and Criminal Statutes http://www.mincava.umn.edu/link/documents/statutes/statutes.shtml | 491 |
| Interrupting the Cycle of Domestic Violence http://www.mincava.umn.edu/reports/interrup.doc | 406 |
| A Comprehensive Theory of Family Violence http://www.mincava.umn.edu/jgilgun/brainstm.doc | 404 |
Table 4. Top 10 most requested pages: January 1, 2002 - December 31, 2002
| Page | Number of Times Viewed |
|---|---|
| MINCAVA Home Page http://www.mincava.umn.edu/ | 175,422 |
| Domestic Violence http://www.mincava.umn.edu/vaw.asp | 40,835 |
| Child Abuse http://www.mincava.umn.edu/ca.asp | 26,769 |
| Trafficking http://www.mincava.umn.edu/traffick.asp | 15,065 |
| Articles and Research http://www.mincava.umn.edu/stories.asp | 13,509 |
| Children of Domestic Violence: Risks and Remedies http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/hart/risks.shtml | 13,178 |
| Search the MINCAVA Clearinghouse http://www.mincava.umn.edu/search.asp | 12,652 |
| Same-Sex Domestic Violence References http://www.mincava.umn.edu/bibs/samesex.htm | 11,380 |
| Site Index http://www.mincava.umn.edu/outline.asp | 10,758 |
| Domestic Violence Factoids http://www.mincava.umn.edu/papers/factoid.htm | 10,567 |
During 2002, the MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse received approximately 1175 information requests through the website's email account. The tables below show the number of information requests received per month.
The MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse receives feedback from site users in a variety of ways.
Email/Web submission form. Users can email site staff to share feedback, ask questions about the site, or seek referrals.
User survey. The user survey provides staff with helpful information such as how the user found the site, user likes and dislikes, frequency of use, and more. (See Appendix A for survey.)
Guest book. Users can express reactions, share experiences, or just sign their name to the guest book.
The following is a sampling of comments users have written in the guest book during 2002:
"Very comprehensive site. As a civilian advocate employed in a Police Dept. it is always encouraging to find such useful sites as this to refer client to. Thank you."
"I found this website to be very helpful. I am the Civil-Legal Advocate for a program called, "the Blossom Project." It is a program that enables victims of domestic violence and/or sexual assault to break the tie that binds. We are teaming up with Northwestern Legal Services and assisting clients with custody, divorce, child support, etc. free of charge."
"I wish to comment on the contents of your web site. . .The contents sadden me to say the least, as V.P. of a Domestic violence organization. . .I try to help the many MALE victims of Domestic violence here in Wisconsin who have no resources for their plight. As an abused FATHER I can confirm that there are no resources for MALE victims in Wisconsin. I would welcome any constructive help you can provide me, or any men who may need help in this area."
"I'm a senior Social Work major at the Univ. of North Texas and am taking the course "Violence in the American Family" and have found your site very helpful. Thank you!"
"I met someone from MINCAVA in Washington D.C. recently at a grant review, who told me about this Website. I am amazed at the depth and breadth of what you do here! Thank you all for your thoroughness, tenacity and passion for sharing as many sources of information as possible. Thank you again, so much."
"I work with Wellstone's campaign in the first CD - mostly rural. Heard the report on MPR this morning. Devastating, but am not surprised. Did some research on domestic violence in college. Keep up the good work! We need more organizations like yours!"
"Nice site. Hope all remains good for you guys...please add me to your mailing list. I am especially interested in publications and conferences/workshops for advocates. Thank you."
"I am doing an assignment on women's abuse and your Website has given me a lot of information on it, Thank you and keep up the good work..."
The MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse has maintained its site goals and has experienced growth and activity over the past year. This growth can be seen in the site's usage, development, and technical assistance requests.
The Electronic Clearinghouse averaged 1,255 users per day. This is an increase of 88% from last year. During 2002, approximately 250 new links to articles and webpages were added to the content database, bringing our resource links to 3050. The new content reflected diversity in the violence intervention and prevention field. The Electronic Clearinghouse has received positive feedback about our resources from others in the field and was said to be a valuable resource in others' violence prevention efforts.
Web usage statistics were calculated using the software program Web Trends http://www.webtrends.com/default.htm
MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse: a portfolio of information about one of the most widely used websites for violence-related resources on the Internet today http://www.mincava.umn.edu/center/portfoli.asp
Survey for user feedback can be found at http://www.mincava.umn.edu/Surveys/survey.asp
