Balancing safety and self-sufficiency - Lessons on serving victims of domestic violence for child support and public assistance agencies

This article reports on three demonstration projects involving efforts to a ddress the needs of public assistance applicants/recipients who are domesti c violence victims while also developing effective methods to improve coope ration with child support agencies. Through various approaches, such as dir ect questioning, screening and referrals, and domestic violence specialists , the projects explore ways to identify victims of domestic violence, level s of interest in child support and exemptions, barriers to cooperation, and clients' responses to specialists and referrals for community-based servic es.