Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence

📚 Looking for a meaningful MAYMESTER course this summer?

Join Dr. Abraham Salinas, Director of the James & Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence, for:

PHC 6413: Family & Community Violence in Public Health
📅 May 11–22, 2026
🎓 3 Graduate Credits
📍 Hybrid Format

This interactive graduate course explores violence prevention through a public health lens with discussions, case scenarios, guest speakers, and problem-based learning. Topics include intimate partner violence, ACEs, survivor advocacy, prevention strategies, and more.

✨ Counts toward the USF Graduate Certificate in Child Advocacy Studies (CAST).

Open to graduate students across disciplines!

📧 Questions? Contact:
[email protected] | [email protected]

GraduateSchool FamilyViolence HarrellCenter CASTCertificate

Join us for In Their Shoes: A Domestic Violence Survivor Simulation, an interactive, scenario-based experience designed to deepen understanding of the realities survivors face. This simulation does NOT demonstrate or display domestic violence. Rather it highlights the systems’ based public health challenges survivors and their children experience while navigating community resources.

Participants will navigate real-life challenges—making difficult decisions, interacting with systems, and experiencing the barriers that can impact safety and stability. This exercise shows public health professionals where we can intervene and what interventions are needed to prevent violence, protect individuals, and promote community wellbeing.

💡 Purpose of this experience:
To build empathy, increase awareness of how systems impact survivors and their children, and inspire more informed, compassionate, and effective responses across our communities.

This opportunity is an approved IPE event. Certificates will be emailed 1-2 weeks following the event. Registration is REQUIRED. Community resources and trauma-informed agencies will be present. Link is in our Bio to register!

Register:
https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eqXcgwYOAHxDgAC

🗓 April 1, 2026 | 1–3 PM
📍 USF Health MDL Building

🗓 April 2, 2026 | 9–11 AM
📍 Children’s Board of Hillsborough County

✨ This experience will challenge perspectives, deepen understanding, and highlight the role we all play in prevention and support.

We are honored to have Florida State University’s,
Florida Institute for Child Welfare (FICW) and the Spring of Tampa Bay join the James & Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence to bring this unique opportunity to students, faculty/staff, and community partners.

We’re excited to highlight this important community event hosted by our friends at The Spring of Tampa Bay. The Spring is the host organization for the Hillsborough County Domestic Violence Task Force and the Harrell Center is a proud member of this work group.

“Men in the Movement” is a presentation & a panel that will bring together leaders and advocates for an essential dialogue about how men can play an active role in preventing gender-based and domestic violence.
Join us in person on Friday, Nov. 21st at 9:00-11:00 a.m. at Feeding Tampa Bay.

Register by visiting the link in our Bio or copying and pasting here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScoZz40VFqRsEK0WDq_jDj0YRqGbL6nchy1sdJdcBJkPJ3Z_Q/viewform

The James & Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence is honored to contribute to countywide prevention efforts—and we’re grateful to be part of this work alongside such dedicated organizations. 💜 Everyone has a role!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for last week’s 2-hour Domestic Violence Prevention Workshop—
“Everyone Has a Role: Preventing Domestic Violence Through a Public Health Lens” in collaboration with The Spring of Tampa Bay.

Together, we explored how domestic violence/intimate partner violence prevention is a shared responsibility that involves all systems, sectors, and communities. 💜 Participants connected public health frameworks to real-world prevention efforts through a hands-on mind mapping activity, illustrating how we can all play a role in creating safer, healthier communities.

Stay tuned for more trainings and workshops in the near future!





Alt Text:
Image 1: Three female workshop presenters stand together in a classroom in front of a whiteboard covered with colorful mind maps from the domestic violence prevention exercise. The posters behind them feature interconnected ideas related to access to resources, language, and community systems.

Image 2: Projector screen displays a slide with purple and green colors titled “The Public Health Approach to Domestic Violence: Scope & Impact.”

Image 3: Projector displays a slide titled “Mind Mapping—What is it?” which explains mind mapping as a visual technique to organize ideas around a central theme. The slide shows a colorful diagram with branches, icons, and keywords illustrating the concept.

Image 4: A colorful hand-drawn mind map on poster paper titled “Access to Transportation,” showing a large bus illustration with connected ideas such as neighborhoods, carpooling, safety, and access to health and community resources.

Image 4: A colorful mind map titled “Substance Use/Abuse and Mental Health,” includes strategies to support survivors such as advocacy and access to resources, while showing how substance use and mental health can intersect with DV.

📢 Everyone Has a Role
💜 Preventing Domestic Violence Through a Public Health Lens

Join us on October 23, 2025 for an interactive, in-person workshop during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We have 18 spots left!!

✨ Together, we’ll explore:
✔️ What public health prevention really means in the context of domestic/relationship violence
✔️ Current data, trends, and risk & protective factors shaping our communities
✔️ A hands-on mind-mapping activity to reflect on the unique roles we each play in prevention

🗓 Thursday, October 23, 2025
🕙 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. ET
📍 USF College of Public Health, Room CPH 2022
🔗 Register here: https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_832GnFD2vppGjT8

This event is hosted by the James & Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence in collaboration with The Spring of Tampa Bay.

Seats are very limited—secure yours today! Registration is required.

📢 Join us for a timely webinar: Frontline Fatigue: Addressing Burnout and Building Resilience for Public Health Professionals.
This session explores how burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral distress impact our field and why using a trauma informed approach is essential to the public health profession. This 90 minute webinar blends evidence, compassion, and resilience-oriented strategies to support personal and professional wellbeing.

🗓️ Date & Time: Wednesday, September 17th 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
💻 Registration required! Use link in Bio or copy and paste: https://r4phtc.org/frontline-fatigue-addressing-trauma-and-burnout-for-public-health-professionals/
📍 Hosted by the Region IV Public Health Training Center in collaboration with the James and Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence at USF College of Public Health.

✅ Learn how to:
• Recognize signs of burnout, trauma, secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and moral injury in the occupational context
• Explore systemic and structural contributors to workforce burnout
• Describe practical ways organizations can foster a culture of psychological safety, peer support, and collective care.

You don’t want to miss this free webinar opportunity! All are welcome - this content is applicable to ALL helping professionals!
💚💛

We had an incredible turnout for our recent domestic violence/intimate partner violence(DV/IPV) prevention training in collaboration with The Spring of Tampa Bay! 💜 Over 30 participants from diverse organizations and disciplines joined us for a powerful session grounded in public health to discuss domestic violence prevention.

Together, we explored the socio-ecological model, reviewed the latest data and evidence, and used mind mapping to critically examine the root causes of DV/IPV. Through both lecture and hands-on activities, we highlighted the unique roles we each play—both personally and professionally—in preventing violence before it starts and why it matters. Everyone has a role!

Violence is preventable. And when we come together with shared knowledge and collective purpose, we move one step closer to real, systemic change. 💪 Special thanks to for hosting us!

Comment below and share your ideas to prevent DV!






Alt Text:
Images 1-2 (Training Room & Facilitators) Participants from diverse organizations engage in a DV prevention training, with a presentation slide and group activities in view. First photo shows the 3 women who facilitated the training from the Harrell Center and The Spring of Tampa Bay. They are standing together in front of the projector which shows the PowerPoint Title Slide.
Images 3-5 “Mind Mapping/Collaboration” These photos show the large conference room with multiple windows with people working in small groups. Colorful mind maps cover the back wall, showcasing group ideas on root causes and solutions to prevent domestic violence.

Feeling overwhelmed by the challenge of preventing domestic violence? You’re not alone!

Join us for “Preventing Domestic Violence” — an interactive event exploring systemic solutions and how each of us plays a role in prevention efforts.

Thursday, May 29 | 9–11 AM [In Person Only]
Children’s Board of Hillsborough County
1002 E Palm Ave, Tampa, FL 33605

Hear from experts at The Spring of Tampa Bay and the James & Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence.

RSVP now: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEz1aSdHXhvRUEubaK4-Rks_HdVyf6RsEQ_dkHaWRIWz7m3w/viewform
*Direct link can be found in bio*
Questions? Email [email protected]

ID: Flyer for an event titled “Preventing Domestic Violence,” happening May 29th, 9–11am at the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County in Tampa, FL. It features purple and orange graphics and an illustration of a person walking a tightrope. Speakers include representatives from The Spring of Tampa Bay and the Harrell Center. RSVP info and partner logos are included.

Dr. Abraham Salinas, Director of the James & Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence, is proud to represent the Harrell Center at the Florida Institute for Child Welfare Conference in Tallahassee, FL, where experts are exploring critical intersections between domestic violence and the child welfare system. Understanding this connection is vital—children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to enter the welfare system, and families navigating both systems face complex, compounding challenges (Victor et al., 2019). Collaborative, trauma-informed approaches are essential to creating safer outcomes for children and families.

ID: This photo is taken selfie-style and depicts Dr. Abraham Salinas in front of a large poster. The poster shows a map of the state of FL and says Florida Institute for Child Welfare (FICW) at the top. To the left of the FL map, the following reads: Partnerships, Research & Education,Policy Analysis, and Technical Assistance & Training which are among the core components for the FICW. Dr. Salinas is standing slightly in front of this poster, smiling, and is wearing glasses, a suit jacket, and has a bright blue lanyard on that states FICW.

Reference: Victor, B. G., Henry, C., Gilbert, T. T., Ryan, J. P., & Perron, B. E. (2019). Child Protective Service Referrals Involving Exposure to Domestic Violence: Prevalence, Associated Maltreatment Types, and Likelihood of Formal Case Openings. Child Maltreatment, 24(3), 299–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559519843605

Are you interested in learning more about complex public health social issues? Taught by our James & Jennifer Harrell Center Director, Dr. Abraham Salinas, this annual 2-week, 3-credit hour course beginning on May 19th - May 30th explores the impact of family violence. This course is designed to be interdisciplinary and broadly applicable. Therefore, regardless of your major or career path, the knowledge and skills gained are transferable and relevant beyond the classroom. Understanding the dynamics of family violence is valuable for anyone—both professionally and personally—as it equips individuals with critical insight into a complex social issue that affects communities and systems everywhere. Throughout the 2 weeks, you will learn from various professionals (guest speakers) and discover how we can create safer, more compassionate communities.
Check with your advisor to see if this course is right for you! Feel free to reach out with questions to Dr. Salinas at [email protected].
*No classes will be held Memorial Day, 5/26 as USF observes the national holiday.

ID: A colorful flyer promotes a graduate course titled “Family & Community Violence in Public Health” (PHC 6413, CRN 52051), taking place May 19–May 30th, 2025. The course is offered by USF Health, College of Public Health, and the James and Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence. It’s taught by Dr. Abraham Salinas, MD, PhD, Director of the Harrell Center. Course is offered in person AND/OR online (hyflex with Microsoft Teams).

A green and black box highlights the course title and schedule.
Logos appear at the bottom for USF Health, the Harrell Center, and ribbon graphics symbolizing violence prevention awareness.

Contact Info:
• Instructor: Dr. Abraham Salinas – [email protected]
• Peer experience: Chrissy Zimmer – [email protected]