Examples from the field

Virginia’s Red Flag Campaign

The Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance submitted a proposal to the Verizon Foundation to forge a multi-year partnership on an exciting new project: the Commonwealth Campus Campaign. The vision behind the campaign was to create the first statewide awareness and education campaign designed specifically to address dating violence among students on Virginia’s college and university campuses.

With the generous support of the Verizon Foundation, the Action Alliance worked with local businesses to form a public relations team, and convened an Advisory Committee of college and university faculty, staff and students from across the state to help guide the creation and implementation of the Campaign. Verizon Foundation representatives and Action Alliance staff also served as members of the Advisory Committee.

The public relations research team conducted focus groups of college students to explore the nature of dating relationships on campus and to identify hallmarks of healthy relationships versus abusive ones. During those focus groups, students revealed that they are willing to intervene with friends who are being victimized by or acting abusively toward their dates. Students also clearly indicated that they would be receptive to hearing intervention and prevention messages from their friends, should they ever find themselves in a dating violence circumstance.

Following the outcome of the initial focus groups, the Advisory Committee decided to design a campaign that would 1) target college students who are friends/peers of victims and perpetrators of dating violence, 2) educate friends/peers about “red flags” (warning indicators) of dating violence, and 3) encourage friends/peers to “say something” (intervene in the situation). Thus, the Commonwealth Campus Campaign was renamed and The Red Flag Campaign was born.

Engaging partners in business: Rhode Island’s Ten Men Initiative and Friends of RICADV Program

The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV) has been successful in building a successful and lasting partnership with Alliance Security – the partnership first grew out of opportunities to support advocacy and safety for survivors of violence but quickly expanded to include the involvement of Alliance Security’s CEO in the prevention of intimate partner violence through a unique statewide initiative called Ten Men. This video highlights these programs and agency efforts, mapping out the push towards more robust engagement with business partners in the prevention of violence.