The focus groups were conducted between January and October 2022. We had 17 participants ranging age from early 20s to late 40s. No one who responded to the study inquiry was removed or dropped out. All but one participant (94%) identified as women of color. Participants included women from two organizations with distinct practice patterns, one HVIP and one community-based program. Both programs serve adults and teenagers on the south and west sides of Chicago. Two focus groups involved women who worked with clients in a community-based organization (12 participants total in community-based programs), and the third focus group was composed of women working in an HVIP (five participants total in HVIPs). Information from hiring leadership suggests that most participants were from the discipline of social work, including all of the participants from HVIPs and many from the community work, with very few from the background of community activism. Thematic saturation was achieved.
Motivations
When discussing motivations for working in violence intervention and outreach, a major theme that emerged was a firsthand experience with interpersonal violence. Many women shared that they had been drawn to the work after experiencing the death, injury, or incarceration of a friend or family member due to interpersonal violence. For them, these events were a catalyst that led to their desire to prevent what they had experienced from happening to others in their community. As one participant explained:
Unfortunately, it landed on my front door…for me, it was no longer just on the news. It was, literally, in my house…I was determined to get into a field that I could try to do something, even if it was a small amount to give back, to help somebody, a young man.
Interestingly, this shared perspective seems not to be understood by many of their clients, with one participant describing
…that the different [clients] that I see, they don’t always expect me to maybe have had similar stories with them or similar experiences as them because I am a female…They’re usually really shocked about just the similarities and upbringing, the similarities and experiences. And I do believe that it’s because I’m a female sometimes.
However, for women who had this personal connection to instances of interpersonal violence, their work with their clients in violence intervention and outreach was an opportunity for them to change the outcome for others and to disrupt the transgenerational cycles of trauma in their community.
Challenges
Despite their strong motivations for working in violence intervention, participants also cited several challenges they face in their daily work. These fell under three main subthemes: a sense of powerlessness in the face of wider systems-based issues and constraints outside of their control, the psychological effects of working in a field with frequent exposure to trauma, and difficulty maintaining work-life balance.
One of the significant challenges discussed by VISW was the frustration felt when they found themselves in a situation where despite their best efforts, factors outside their control prevented them from becoming successful. This might be the inability to connect a client to needed resources such as housing or job training due to lack of availability of services, or having a client who has been achieving many of their goals then become reinjured or even killed suddenly. One participant described this, stating, ‘There are certain times when we’re able to provide a safety plan for alternative options, but a lot of other times they end up going back to the same community, the exact same place where they got injured in the first place.’ VISW felt a sense of helplessness in the face of a system that often does not respond to the needs of their clients. These feelings were reported by community workers and participants in HVIPs, with no major distinctions along the lines of this work.
The psychological ramifications for providers working in a field with constant secondary exposure to trauma were felt by both those working at the community organization and in the HVIP. One participant described this stating:
Just constantly hearing what happened to a patient and then the circumstances in which they got injured, it can become—it can make you look paranoid. I don’t even like going to get gas anymore because I’m always hearing, oh, it happened at the gas station…it definitely takes something away from you, a level of freedom that I used to have. I don’t have it anymore.
Other participants related that they often struggled to process their client’s experiences and would turn to detachment as a coping mechanism. Many were reluctant to share or discuss their work experiences with others in their lives for fear of burdening them with the distress of the events they had indirectly borne witness to. Lastly, participants related that it was often difficult to create adequate separation from their home and work life.
The role of gender and identity
When discussing how they thought gender and other identity roles impacted their work, participants discussed that they felt their clients often opened up to them in a way they did not with their male coworkers. Participants hypothesized this may be due to a perceived sense of increased safety or nurturing with female staff compared with male staff, stating:
Men who have been involved in, you know, you know, gun violence and, you know, so they might not…they might come from a way where life is just tough love. And you know, our participants don't need tough love all the time, you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And I think honestly, we as you know, women, we know when it works, when it doesn't. So we are able to navigate that a little bit better.
Participants described that this sometimes led to their male coworkers bringing clients to them or other women in the office when they were concerned they were not able to open up fully.
In addition, participants felt this unique relationship between female staff and their male clients allowed clients to develop healthy relationship models for relationships with the other women in their lives, challenging models of toxic masculinity. One participant stated:
I think that as females, whatever we allow clients to learn how to gain healthy relationships, learn how to build healthy attachments to someone to have how to have healthy communication and with other women in their lives….And basically just bringing like a—like we highlighted before, like, you know that that feminine, soft spirit to the mortar really allows them to kind of open up in a way that is different….
The closeness and trust that develops between male clients and female staff even led, in one case, to disclosure of histories of trauma, including sexual violence in childhood. ‘I wanna say that many of the young men I’ve spoken to have opened up about a history of molestation when they were kids.’ This unique relationship may also help young men seek support for histories of trauma, another mechanism of learning how to develop healthier relationships.
Despite the unique strength that women bring to their roles because of this, many of the participants in our study felt like they received less respect than their male colleagues. This manifested both in less perceived respect from their clients, as well as feeling that women were not given as many opportunities for leadership in their organizations, with one woman stating:
And I wasn’t in the room where decisions were being made. And so I felt limited in my role on how I wanted to help people. And because I did the work for so long as a case manager, I saw the changes that needed to be made. Couldn’t get in the room, though.
Participants felt that receiving less respect from their clients may be in part due to the perception that the women did not share or understand their experiences. One woman described an event at work that made this apparent to her:
They just don’t give us the street…I guess…respect or credit that they would give to a guy. We played this game one time where we all had to say something about ourselves, and then we pull it out and we try to say it. And then they have to go around the room and try to guess who said it. So everything that came out that appeared to be male-dominant, they went to a male. But the funny thing is a lot of it was women, and they couldn’t believe it. They were like, ‘Really?’
Overall, gender plays a significant role in the interactions that VISW have with their clients, both positively by promoting trust and relationship building and negatively as male clients often view VISW as unrelatable.
Future needs
Participants noted a need for ensuring adequate time for physical and psychological self-care. They discussed that dealing with the stress and vicarious trauma of their role should be considered a regular part of their job, not something extra they had to be responsible for in their free time. One participant expressed:
I, personally, don’t even think that this is like a 40-hour-a-week job. I feel like in order for people to function at a capacity where they're able to help others, even the scheduling should—I don’t know. It should not be like an 8-hour shift every day. It could be like alternative days. It could be maybe one week you work for 10-hour shifts and then the other week you work on case management from home.
The VISW explained there are currently no trainings to address vicarious trauma in their work, despite all participants stating being affected by it. Participants also expressed a desire for peer support and debriefing opportunities, and for more opportunities for career development and leadership for women in their field.
Additionally, one woman pointed out that the strengths they had identified related to their gender could also be leveraged to improve the effectiveness of men working in violence outreach and intervention, suggesting
trainings… not really for us, but more training for like the other stuff that basically teaches them how to work in a…I need the right word for it…more therapeutic… to have these conversations where like they don’t have to be this like father or this hard exterior towards the guys or whatever, but teaching staff on how to be more client centered, client focused, you know, basically just a different approach overall.
The participants noted an interest in participating in these trainings and serving as peer educators.