Featured Partner

GIRLS! CAMERA! ACTION!

Founder and director Karla Duarte provides at-risk girls with media arts after-school programs through the GIRLS! CAMERA! ACTION! Youth Violence Prevention Program and has been doing so since 2011. Her goal is to provide these young girls with safe environments to learn in and to keep them away from the dangers of youth dating violence through the art of film, letting them explore the roles of producers, screenwriters, and so on. GCA’s Youth Violence Prevention Program initiates a conversation about suppressed issues like peer pressure, unwanted pregnancies, and sex trafficking. The girls learn various skills to develop healthy relationships, how to end unhealthy relationships safely, and their legal rights. Each 12-week workshop ends with a completed PSA made by the girls to educate all who view them on the topic of youth dating violence. View one of the PSAs below and “like” GIRLS! CAMERA! ACTION! on Facebook to be kept up-to-date.

https://www.facebook.com/girlsca

Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence believes everyone deserves the joy that comes from a healthy relationship. During Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, ICADV is working with their teen councils to catalyze awareness about teen dating violence and inspire preventative action. Educating teens on matters of dating violence is important to ICADV because they know relationship behaviors are developed early, and Indiana teens have made tremendous strides with their Stand4Respect campaign. Unfortunately ICADV’s efforts are challenged by norms prevalent in Indiana that enable domestic violence—especially those around gender, uses of power, and privacy in intimate relationships. However, as one youth council member said, “There will always be push-back, but it gives [us] an opportunity to have a conversation.”

ICADV youth council members will be promoting awareness this month by distributing education cards throughout Indiana, as well as hosting art shows, fundraising dance marathons, and a fashion show.

www.icadvinc.org

Mask Theater

Students in Montgomery, New Jersey created MASK (Montgomery Advocates for Solidarity and Kindness) Theater to shed light on the issue of unhealthy teen relationships. MASK’s mission is to teach peers how to recognize relationship abuse through dramatic performances, music, and interactive discussions. Not only do they educate students at their own high school, but they have created a workshop for Girl Scouts called “Self Image, Relationships, and the Technology Age,” as well as making an instructional DVD that is distributed to other schools in the area so that they may implement a program similar to MASK.

MASK Theater will be posting videos to YouTube for Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. At local schools, MASK will be hosting fundraisers, putting up banners, and sending out newsletters to share with peers the importance of healthy relationships. Visit their websites for more information.

www.masktheater.blogspot.com

Men Can Stop Rape

Men Can Stop Rape pioneered a novel way of looking at the epidemic of violence against women, dispelling the myth that it is solely a women's issue. To involve young men, MCSR created the Men of Strength (MOST) Club. This program challenges young men to shift the responsibility of violence to the community by encouraging them to create Community Strength Projects exhibiting alternative masculinities not defined by the dominant stories that say being a man means being emotionally distant and "tough." These counter stories promote resistance to traditional dominant stories of masculinity by empowering them to live in ways more in line with their own authentic humanity.

MCSR will be promoting Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month by spreading awareness on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbr, YouTube, and their website's blog. MOST Club members will be discussing teen dating violence prevention by facilitating dialogue in their weekly meetings across the country.

http://www.mencanstoprape.org

No More

No More’s campaign was started when the nation’s major domestic violence and sexual assault service providers were brought together for a national summit. The campaign created a specific symbol and endorsed the whole concept of a unified national campaign to shed light on domestic violence and sexual assault, raise awareness and offer a brand from which all of the organizations could benefit. The national branding program would be used throughout the country to provide visibility and acceptance similar to the pink ribbon branding campaign associated with breast cancer.

NO MORE is a simple idea with the power to unleash new, major attention to the people all around us who are hurt – directly or indirectly — by domestic violence and sexual assault every day and every minute. Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest are all social media avenues NO MORE uses to start conversations about this seemingly invisible epidemic. Visit their website and take the pledge to say NO MORE to all forms of domestic and sexual abuse!

www.nomore.org

Northwest Network

WE <3 GAY LOVE! WE <3 GAY YOUTH! Founded in 1987 by lesbian survivors of battering, the NW Network works to end abuse in diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities. Dating violence in LGBT communities has often been dismissed as inconsequential or unnatural, and as one of only a few such organizations, NWN takes it upon themselves to bring this valid issue to the foreground. NWN works with survivors of all identities, genders, and religious and cultural backgrounds. Particularly relevant to Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month are their Youth Programs. NWN’s Voices in Power (VIP) Program offers support for LGBT youth (ages 14-23). They provide these young survivors with skills and the empowerment they need to surround themselves with healthy relationships and support groups in order to prevent further incidences of dating abuse and/or violence. NWN also trains youth to address anti-LGBT violence, oppression, and bullying in schools through their OutSpoken LGBT Youth Speakers Bureau. Please visit the Northwest Network’s website for more information!

www.nwnetwork.org

One Billion Rising

One Billion Rising is a global campaign by V-Day, a movement to end violence against women and girls. UN statistics report that 1 in 3 women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime and in response to this atrocity, OBR is asking one billion people to STRIKE-DANCE-RISE in a commitment to ending violence against women and girls. STRIKE and walk out of your home, job, everyday life. DANCE to a choreographed routine by Debbie Allen. RISE by committing to a world without violence. OBR has also created a campaign targeted at younger girls called V-Girls, which encourages them to raise their voices and become active in the fight to end violence against women. Education is essential and abuse cannot be stopped if people do not address its forms and causes affecting all generations of women. OBR is for EVERYONE who is courageous enough to commit to a world without violence. Over 190 countries have become a part of the movement, and OBR will have more than one billion people RISING on February 14^th

http://www.v-girls.org/

PAVE

Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment is a multinational nonprofit that works to educate communities, empower survivors, and eradicate injustice. PAVE’s efforts boldly aspire to free the nation from sexual assault and domestic violence, engaging survivors and non-survivors alike. A main focus of PAVE’s work involves college and high school students. While engaging both young women and men, they train teens to be more supportive friends and encourage them to intervene if they know someone who is in an abuse relationship. PAVE uses art and other forms of creativity to make the issue of violence more approachable in their viral campaign, Love Fest. The organization is also actively using various forms of social media, like Pinterest and Facebook Causes, to spread their transformative vision to ensure that no survivor ever feels alone or disempowered. Become a part of PAVE’s Love Fest campaign this February by downloading tools and art projects at their website!

www.pavingtheway.net

SafePlace's Expect Respect

SafePlace’s Expect Respect Program engages youth, parents, schools, and communities in building healthy teen relationships and preventing dating abuse. Expect Respect Support Groups serve middle and high school students in the Austin, TX area who have experienced violence or abuse in their homes, peer, or dating relationships. The organization also educates and empowers youth to have healthy relationships and to become role models, allies, and peer educators through the Leadership Programs they provide. These leaders speak out against bullying, harassment, and dating abuse through youth generated projects and campaigns. By working in the community and in schools to create safe environments and respond effectively to incidents of violence and abuse, SafePlace’s Expect Respect Program expresses commitment to work toward the elimination of sexual and domestic violence.

http://www.expectrespectaustin.org/