1 in 3 U.S. teens will experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from someone they’re in a relationship with before becoming adults.
And nearly half (43%) of U.S. college women report experiencing violent or abusive dating behaviors.
February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness month and this year’s theme is Love Like That – “that” being healthy relationships. This month spend time every week researching and learning about the types a harm teens experience and looks for ways to increase awareness in your communities.
Love is Respect is a great place to start your educational journey!
And here are a few ways Faith Communities can partake and raise awareness:
- Newsletter or Social media Announcements
- Have local DV/SA program publicity available to community
- Have them table during services during the month
- Ask a local program to speak about healthy peer, parent, and romantic relationships
- Have a local specialist write a blog about healthy relationships
- Hold a Training with young people on healthy relationships
- Offer a Training for parents and caregivers on How to Support teens experiencing harm in a relationship
- Have a Myth Busting Session
- Craft an ongoing Healthy Relationship/Harm Prevention Programs for Young People
- Support Policy & Procedure Development and Implementation for the community about reporting harm and how to protect those who have been harmed
- Talk about it from your position of leadership
