About the Institute

The Institute for Family Violence Studies (IFVS) within Florida State University’s College of Social Work builds comprehensive trauma-informed large-scale trainings and conducts interdisciplinary research. IFVS advocates for supportive legislative policy solutions and systems that promote resilient, healthy families and reduce all forms of family and intimate partner violence. It is the goal of the Institute to be a national resource for trauma-informed services to improve safety, resilience, and well-being for individuals and families. IFVS activities include:

• Building national-scale research based training projects and adding to the knowledge base on supervised visitation, first responders, co-parenting after divorce, trauma-informed care, and healthy relationships;
• Promoting effective policy and legislative solutions for reducing family violence, supporting sexual and gender minorities, and advocating for healthy individuals and families;
• Collaborating with state, national, and international organizations that support families to disseminate and expand our projects;
• Mentoring students who work on our projects in a supportive environment and building their leadership skills that translate into success in the workplace;
• Maintaining extensive online resources on all IFVS projects.