Effectiveness and Comparative Analysis of New York State’s Domestic Violence Initiatives for State Employees

The New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence was formed in 1992 in order to improve the State’s response to and prevention of domestic violence. In 2007, an Executive Order was issued by the Governor that set guidelines for Domestic Violence in the Workplace initiatives for state employees. This included training, communications materials, and protocols in place to help support state employees. Five years after the Executive Order was issued, the Capstone team implemented surveys of state employees and Domestic Violence in the Workplace liaisons in various state agencies in order to assess the efficacy of the Executive Order, as well as to make recommendations on information gathering and continued implementation of the policy. A comparative analysis of state policies across the country was conducted in order to make best practice recommendations and evaluate New York State’s policies on a national level.