Community Alternatives to Violence was organized in West Virginia as a non-profit (IRS designation 501 (c)(3) in 1996 by Carole Ergin, MSW, LICSW.
Since 1996 the program has come to embody the following accomplishments.
  • Four weekly groups, lasting 32 weeks, (separate groups for men and for women) throughout the Panhandle, led by trained facilitators
  • Licensing by the West Virginia Family Protection Services Board
  • Partnership with the Shenandoah Womens Center
  • A 96% success rate based on a sampling of 100% of program completions between 2002 and 2005.
Most people connect abuse with physical injury but it is much more than that. According to the Duluth curriculum which we use in our classes, family violence is ANY attempt to control the will of another. This power and control can be exercised in eight different ways:
  • Intimidation
  • Emotional abuse
  • Isolation
  • Minimyzing, denying, and blaming
  • Using children
  • Male privilege
  • Economic abuse
  • Coercion and threats
Family violence is a learned behavior arising out of a need for power and control. As a learned behavior, it can be unlearned.