Socias (Director General of The International Institute for Family Research), “Strong families to prevent and deal with domestic violence”

“Taking into account the vast experience of our Federation in dealing with families around the world, we daily see that the family is the place where most people learn the basic life skills and that it is, therefore, the best environment for preventing violence, especially in the home.” Ignacio Socias, International Institute for Family Research, said this in his intervention this morning during the panel discussion on Dealing with Domestic Violence, at the World Meeting of Families being held in Dublin. Socias recalled “the levels of violent family dysfunction reported by global agencies” indicate “the need to address families and communities as a whole in order to reestablish the secure bonds, functional relationships, and the resilience of both the family and the community.” The federation is committed to developing this “through formation programs and family support, improving the skills of new parents, school programs, and community awareness campaigns”. Socias warned: “A community that tolerates violent and vindictive behavior cannot be considered healthy. Nor can it expect its children to refuse violence as an acceptable means of conflict resolution.” Indicating “the first way to break the silence, for prevention and finding solutions,” Socias reiterated the need to “create an environment in which all the families are strengthened and supported” because “violence only finds its place when the real family bonds are denaturalized and replaced by other ties.” The first step indicated is “the great ease of communicating intimacy with the outside world,” which can be an occasion, in cases of bullying or other forms of abuse, to “make it easier to break the silence.”