For some time, the people working in the fields of domestic violence (DV), healthy marriage (HM), and responsible fatherhood (RF) had very little interaction and limited understanding of other clients’ experiences, perspectives, philosophies, values, and activities. Social service providers and policymakers will benefit from the information included in this guide developed from the Building Bridges conference that brought together 30 individuals from these fields to discuss ideas and experiences designed to increase cooperation and collaboration between their programs. Included in this guide are promising practices that aim to help HM, RF, and DV programs work together.

We call this document a "preliminary guide" because the bridge-building effort is new and will evolve. There is no blueprint for these types of partnerships. Programs are learning many new ways of working together and, in the process, are discovering new unresolved issues. At this important juncture–when so many new programs have been funded–we decided it would be useful to publish and disseminate a set of promising ideas and practices that were discussed at the conference. Written publications such as this one are just beginning. Technical assistance is also needed to assist programs in using this guide and in working with other tools that will be developed in the future. More>>