Awareness Highlights: What #1Thing will you do to prevent teen dating violence?
NRCDV’s Domestic Violence Awareness Project is carrying our #1Thing message into February as we work to promote healthy relationships, consent, and support for survivors in recognition of Teen Dating Violence Awareness & Prevention Month. Each and every one of us can play a role in preventing relationship violence across the lifespan, promoting gender and racial equity, and creating the world we wish to live in – and that can start with just one thing!
#1Thing that we are excited about this month is our new and updated resources for serving teen survivors of dating violence and working with young people to promote social change. Our updated Preventing and Responding to Teen Dating Violence special collection on VAWnet includes resources for young people, parents and caregivers, school-based professionals, and more, and our Runaway and Homeless Youth Relationship Violence Toolkit offers tools to help advocates and RHY service providers reach youth on the margins. In our February TA Question of the Month, Rebecca Balog and Tanae LeClaire from the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center’s NativeLove project explore ways to foster connections between adult advocates and youth activists and leaders, particularly in Native communities.
When asked where to begin, Tanae says: “I do think it is always respectable to go through elders and include them in any plans. But nowadays, I believe youth leaders are taking charge of their own fights as well. I would not count out youth leaders directly. They should be your main contact points. Those youth probably have mentors or are connected to the right tribal leaders, traditional, at school, or in the community that have a good relationship and are respected by the youth you will be inviting.”
