Programs that attempt to reduce the incidence of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of individuals by their spouses or partners through a variety of educational interventions which may focus on the likely victims of abuse, potential perpetrators, people who work with families and/or the community at large.

Programs that provide information and guidance and/or representation in court proceedings for individuals who have been abused in an intimate relationship and/or for people who are facing a summary conviction offence or criminal charge for perpetrating abuse. Included are domestic violence law clinics and other legal assistance programs that represent victims of domestic abuse at restraining order hearings or in other civil or criminal actions involving charges against an abuser. Most also represent the person's interests in complexities that arise as part of the legal process such as restitution, payment of debts or child support, custody and visitation and property control. Some programs may also represent victims of domestic abuse who have been charged with a crime and/or handle cases involving accusations of child abuse filed by one parent against the other, abuse of an elderly person by an adult child or abuse of an adult child by a parent.

Programs that help adults obtain an order from the police or the courts that protects them from abuse or threats of abuse from a current or former spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, someone they have a child with, someone they live with or someone they are related to through blood or marriage. Included are emergency protective orders that police can obtain from the court to provide immediate protection to an abused family member for five to seven days until an application for a temporary restraining order can be made in court; longer-term temporary restraining orders issued in civil court that forbid contact with the protected person until the propriety of granting a permanent injunction can be evaluated; permanent or after-hearing restraining orders that make a short-term injunction granted in the temporary restraining order permanent (or specify the amount of time they will remain in effect); and criminal temporary protective orders which apply in situations where an abusive individual has been arrested and faces trial.

Individuals whose ethnic background and ancestry are that of the tribal, aboriginal peoples who originated in what is now the United States. Included are Native Americans who are living on or off reservations in rural and urban areas.

Adults who have been subjected to a persistent pattern of abuse which typically includes beating, hitting, shoving, choking, hair pulling, use of a weapon to hurt or threaten or other forms of physical assault that injure or endanger the individual. Physical abuse may also involve destruction of possessions, frightening outbursts of temper (throwing objects, punching walls, kicking doors), denial of medical care, abandonment of a partner in a dangerous or unfamiliar place, locking a partner out of the home, trapping a partner in the home or preventing him or her from leaving.