Teen Dating Violence Awareness Briefing
In partnership with Representative Fitzpatrick and Representative Moore, and in partnership with Ujima, Love is Respect, the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, and AMEND Together, FUTURES Policy Center will hold a special briefing on Teen Dating Violence. The event will take place on February 28th at 3pm ET.
We’re excited to explore the following topics:
- Economic abuse among teenagers;
- The importance of culturally specific resources and programming;
- Healthy relationship programming with young men in elementary, middle and high school as an important prevention tool, and,
- Policy solutions to prevent teen dating violence, also known as adolescent relationship abuse.
We’ll hear from the following expert speakers:
- Gretchen Shaw, Love is Respect
- Sarah Gonzalez, Futures Without Violence
- Gretta Gardner, Ujima Inc., The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community
- Jovita Belgarde, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center
- Shan Foster, AMEND Together
For more information on our incredible expert speakers, please refer to their bios here.
Please reach out to Tiffany Garner at tgarner@futureswithoutviolence.org or Claire Kao at ckao@futureswithoutviolence.org with any questions.
Background
February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, and far too many youth in our communities experience some form of dating violence or abuse. According to data from Love is Respect, 1 in 3 teens will experience some form of abuse in their intimate relationships.
Teen dating violence can take the form of physical, sexual or emotional violence, stalking, cyber abuse, and economic abuse. It can have impacts on a teen’s life far beyond their teenage years, including higher risk for anxiety, depression and suicide, increased risk for drug use and increased risk for future victimization.
But teen dating violence is preventable. There are proven ways to address and reduce dating violence among youth:
- Introducing positive relationship education early to middle and high schoolers
- Build support for policy priorities to prevent and address dating violence and help young people build positive relationships, including:
- VAWA youth programs funding (DOJ)
- FVPSA reauthorization and need for prevention programs and funding
- Funding for RPE
- Funding for culturally specific programs as well as those serving men and boys
- Language within WIOA and other workforce programs that specifically require training on harassment and abuse in the workplace, particularly workplaces with high percentages of young people,
And more.
Teenagers and young adults are the future and current leaders of our country, and we need to do all we can to support them to thrive and live free from violence. That means we have to be courageous enough to take the steps today that will prevent violence tomorrow.
