Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs was incorporated as a nonprofit agency in 1980 under the name Minnesota Program Development, Inc. The Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP), its first project of the agency, which began in a small, upstairs kitchen of the Duluth Community Health Center in Duluth. Three people were employed to coordinate the project, provide services to victims and offenders, and negotiate policies and procedures with community agencies. The project was the first of its kind. Nine city, county, and private agencies came together to adopt policies and procedures that coordinated their intervention in domestic assault cases. These policies focus on protecting victims from continued acts of violence by combining support services for victims and legal sanctions and rehabilitation programs for offenders. Now called Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, the work of DAIP is found in every state and we have projects and collaborations in many places around the world.
Beginning with the most recent and going backward in time, the list below sets forth some of DAIP’s historical milestones and accomplishments.
| 2025 | In its 45th anniversary year, DAIP is in the news about the continuing need to help survivors, and the importance of supporting your local domestic violence program: “DAIP Proves Significant Efforts in Solving Violence,” by Emily Halling, Fox 21, Duluth, MN. |
| 2024 | The “Speaking Of” podcast hosts Michael Paymar, who shared his experience being a part of the development of the Duluth Model Coordinated Community Response. He worked at the DAIP and the Battered Women’s Justice Project for over 30 years. Michael has conducted training on the implementation of a CCR across the country and around the world. Michael and DAIP’s former director, Ellen Pence, co-authored the book Education Groups for Men who Batter: The Duluth Model; the widely used curriculum Creating a Process of Change for Men Who Batter; and the Emmy-nominated documentary With Impunity: Men and Gender Violence. |
| 2023 | The Northland Foundation awards The Carlton County Attorney’s Office and DAIP a $150,000 grant to examine current Carlton County practices in responding to domestic violence. DAIP will conduct survivor focus groups and individual interviews, as well as analyze law enforcement reports of domestic violence calls from law enforcement agencies within the county. |
| 2017 | The Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit of London Metropolitan University and Hestia Life Beyond Crisis organized the event “Life Lessons from Duluth and Beyond.” It was attended by more than 200 people at the London Metropolitan University’s stunning Great Hall. One of the presenters featured at the event was Scott Miller, CCR Coordinator and Men’s Program Coordinator at DAIP. |
| 2015 | The City of Duluth and 6 criminal justice agencies announced the adoption of a new collective domestic violence policy. The Blueprint for Safety strengthens the city and county’s Duluth Model coordinated community response to domestic violence cases. Duluth was selected in 2011 as one of 3 national sites for the Blueprint for Safety Adaptation Demonstration Initiative, a project of the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice, in partnership with Praxis International, a national training organization with offices in Duluth and St. Paul. The City of Duluth was contacted by DAIP to consider and execute this project in partnership with DAIP and the criminal justice agencies in southern St. Louis County. Advocates spent hours observing practice, reviewing cases, mapping systems, reading policy, protocols, practice guides, training manuals, etc. to understand why a particular practice takes place. This learning was then brought into conversations with survivors about their experience of particular practices. DAIP, in partnership with criminal justice professionals, came up with policy and protocol solutions for each of the 6 criminal justice agencies with the goals of improving safety, accountability and the work experience and product of the practitioners.
During the same time period as the Blueprint for Safety work, Duluth was selected as a pilot site for the project Improving the Justice System Response to Witness Intimidation (IWI). This special initiative began as a discussion Assistant Duluth City Attorney Mary Asmus had with members of AEquitas, a national resource center for prosecutors of violence against women crimes. The goal of IWI was to improve the quality of justice in intimidation cases by evaluating current practices and developing and refining new ones that raise community awareness that raise community awareness and increase victim safety and offender accountability. The initiative was funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. Duluth was one of 3 communities selected for having a history of coordination and collaboration among domestic violence criminal justice professionals, victim advocates, and other stakeholders. Each site used the Safety Audit process, created by DAIP’s former director Ellen Pence, to examine current responses to witness intimidation and recommend improvements. |
| 2014 | Out of 25 international nominations, the Duluth Model was the only policy to be awarded the 2014 Future Policy Award for Ending Violence against Women and Girls, also known as the Gold Award. The Future Policy Award is the only international award which recognizes policies rather than people. The Duluth Model is the first humanitarian policy to be honored in the history of the award. The award was presented in Geneva, Switzerland, by the World Futures Council, United Nations Women, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The award recognized not only the Duluth Model but also its founder the late Ellen Pence, organizers at DAIP, leaders of the criminal justice system, law enforcement, battered women’s programs, and human service providers that contributed to the success of the model. |
| 2012 | Duluth Police Department receives the Community Policing Award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police after using DAIP’s Safety Audit process in partnership with Mending the Sacred Hoop and Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault to examine the systemic response to the reported sexual assaults of Native women. |
| 2010 | The Battered Women’s Justice Project, a program of DAIP, receives an Angel Award from the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community for extraordinary outreach efforts in communities of color to promote safety, support, and social justice for battered women, their children, and families affected by domestic violence.
The Domestic Violence Response Team (DVRT) was created in Duluth. It is a partnership between the Duluth Police Department, St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, Arrowhead Regional Corrections, Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, and Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women. The focus of the team is direct advocacy, dedicated domestic violence investigators, dedicated probation agents, risk and danger analysis and distribution to the court, prosecutors and pre-trial release agents. What makes this collaborative unique is the team is housed in the Duluth Police Department by multiple agencies. The mayor of Duluth declares February 5, 2010, “Ellen Pence Day” in honor of DAIP’s former director and her 20 years of work in Duluth advocating for victims of domestic abuse. |
| 2009 | DAIP receives the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation’s “Touchstone Award” for its contribution to the “4 Ts” of economic development: Technology, Territorial Assets, Talent and Tolerance. |
| 2006 | A Christian supplement to the curriculum Creating a Process of Change for Men Who Batter is created. Changing Men, Changing Lives includes a manual and two DVDs. |
| 2003 | The facilitator manual and change name of the Duluth curriculum for facilitating classes for men who batter. Formerly titled Power and Control: Tactics of Men Who Batter, the new curriculum title is Creating a Process of Change for Men Who Batter. |
| 1999 | Sage Publications publishes Coordinating Community Responses to Domestic Violence: Lessons from Duluth and Beyond, edited by our first director, Ellen Pence, and Melanie Shephard, Professor, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota.
The National Institute of Justice awards MPDI a grant to study the impact of court intervention on Native American women. The National Training Project and the Battered Women’s Justice Project – programs of DAIP – receive contracts to provide trainings on developing community response to domestic violence in eastern Europe and the several countries of the former Soviet Union. |
| 1998 | MPDI organizes and conducts a national conference in Duluth for more than 500 attendees: “Public Response to Private Violence: Lessons from Duluth.”
Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance organizes and conducts a national conference for tribal grantees in Rapid City, SD: “Women are Sacred: Key Issues and Practices in Indian Country.” |
| 1997 | DAIP and the Law Enforcement Resource Center of Minneapolis jointly produce a new law enforcement training curriculum – Domestic Violence: The Law Enforcement Response which includes trainer guide, student guide, PowerPoint presentation, and four videos (Update 2000).
DAIP’s director, Ellen Pence, publishes her doctoral thesis Safety for Battered Women in a Textually Mediated Legal System for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Department of Sociology in Education, University of Toronto. Thus began the creation of the Domestic Violence Safety and Accountability Audit, which DAIP used in first in partnership with City of Duluth and St. Louis County criminal justice agencies and service providers and eventually in communities around the world to evaluate institutions’ effectiveness in meeting the needs of the people it is intended to serve as opposed to evaluations looking at quantity or efficiency of case processing. The Safety Audit examined how a problem that citizens are experiencing is generated by current institutional practices; and if the problems are experienced across the board, or disproportionately impact specific members of the community. The Safety Audit discovers how workers are organized and coordinated, directly and indirectly, to approach and act on cases. Its premise is that workers are institutionally organized to do their jobs in particular ways through forms, policies, philosophy, training, and routine practices of the institution in which they work. |
| 1996 | Dr. Lonnie Bristol, president of the American Medical Association, presented the President’s Award of Excellence to DAIP for its model of coordinated community response to domestic assault.
The U.S. Marine Corps contracts with MPDI to provide trainings and technical assistance to develop coordinated community response projects on several Marine installations in the U.S. and Japan. Mending the Sacred Hoop produces a manual and videos for Native American communities working to end violence in families. The U.S. Department of Justice, Violence Against Indian Women Office, awards Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance Project funding to provide training and technical assistance to designated Native American tribal grantees. |
| The Minnesota Medical Association selects the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project as one of three recipients for its first annual Stop the Violence Award. | |
| 1993 | The Custody/Visitation Special Project completes a draft assessment form and training design for practitioners.
A Manual for the US Marine Corps Intervention Model is completed. The Chief Judge of District Court appoints an Interagency Council on Domestic Violence to look at how to enhance the work of the DAIP and improve court disposition of cases. Education Groups for Men Who Batter: The Duluth Model book is published by Springer The Department of Health and Human Services funds MPDI to form in collaboration with the Battered Women’s Justice Project which provides a toll free telephone and clearinghouse on criminal and civil court reform work and development of programs for batterers. |
| 1992 | The National Training Project contracts with the US Marine Corps to develop a Marine Corps Intervention Model in spouse assault cases.MPDI is funded to coordinate work of interagency council on children and battered women on issues of custody and visitation (Custody/Visitation Special Project). |
| 1991 | Groups for Parents begin through the Visitation Center and the curriculum is documented in the manual What About the Kids?
Groups for adolescents using violence (Too Cool to Rule) are organized; the curriculum is documented in the manual What About the Kids? |
| 1990 | The Minnesota Lawyer’s Trust Fund awards a grant to DAIP to develop Prosecutors’ Guidelines and organize a statewide conference on increasing convictions and protection of domestic assault victims.
The Inter-tribal Council to End Violence in Indian Families organizes the pilot project |
| 1989 | Duluth hosts its first week-long on-site institute for practitioners in 11 states.
The National Training Project is organized by DAIP to teach the Duluth Model and to build an ongoing funding source for the Visitation Center, DAIP, and the Women’s Action Group. The Duluth Police Department adopts a new policy which eliminates arrests in self-defense cases and develops a new training curriculum, Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Assaults, for ongoing training of law enforcement officers. An interagency committee is formed to develop a plan to help children caught in the wake of violence between their parents. The first steps toward eventual organizing of the Visitation Center are made. The Visitation Center opens, offering a safe place to exchange children, on-site visitations, and safe place for separated parents with a history of battering to discuss visitation and emergency problems |
| 1987 | The City of Duluth receives the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award for its changes in public policy regarding domestic assault. |
| 1984 | An educational and social change group for Native American women – The Circle of Life – is organized.
Women from the neighborhood-based educational groups form the Women’s Action DAIP conducts its second program evaluation based on an anonymous survey of victims’ satisfaction with the system’s response. |
| 1983 | Duluth is selected for the President’s Award from the Minnesota Corrections Association for its work in the domestic violence field.
Women in the neighborhood groups develop the Power and Control Wheel. |
| 1982 | Based on the results of an initial evaluation, 9 agencies agree to permanently institute previously experimental policies. Each intervening agency’s policies are documented in the manual Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Assault Cases: A Guide for Policy Development (updated 1985, 1989, 1996). Duluth KDLH TV station produces a documentary on the project, The Rites of Violence. |
| 1981 | Duluth police issue a mandatory arrest policy.
Eight agencies dealing with prosecution, probation, civil protection orders, mental health services, shelter services and incarceration form a network and agree on experimental guidelines to handle cases brought into the system by the mandatory arrest policy and the increased use of civil protection orders. Neighborhood-based women’s groups are organized for women using the court system but not staying at the shelter. These groups are later documented in facilitator’s manual, In Our Best Interest. (1987) (Update 1994) Groups for men who batter are started by three mental health centers. These groups are later combined with the educational model described in the facilitator’s manual Power and Control: Tactics of Men Who Batter. (1986) (Update 1993) |
| 1980 | DAIP organizes under the nonprofit corporation Minnesota Program Development, Inc. At the request of the Duluth shelter (Women’s Coalition), Duluth is selected as the site for a pilot criminal justice reform project. |