Love is respect – National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline

With a successful and productive Peer Ambassador training weekend under our belts, we thought we would let two of our peer advocates fill you in on how the weekend went. Check it out:

Advocate #1
The Peer Ambassador weekend in Dallas was a blast! We had the opportunity to meet a group of amazing teens from around the country! We had a great time getting to know everyone and of course Six Flags over Texas was a ton of fun!  One of the highlights for me was having the opportunity to sit down and talk with all of the teens about how they feel teen dating violence affects people in their schools and neighborhoods. We picked a brilliant group of teens and they had so much feedback and input to share with our team. I learned so much during our weekend together. I really appreciated how involved and enthusiastic everyone was about making changes in their home towns. I can’t wait to see the impact that our Peer Ambassadors have in their communities!

The Peer Ambassador weekend was a huge success!

Advocate #2
As advocates with loveisrespect, National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline, we talk with teens daily about critical, real, and most often difficult situations in their lives caused by unhealthy and abusive behaviors in relationships.  When I arrived in Dallas to meet our newly established group of Peer Ambassadors, I assumed most of my weekend would be spent educating and talking about my experiences on the helpline as a senior advocate.  It was therefore a great and humbling surprise to spend most of the weekend not being the teacher, but the student, and the peer.  I learned so much from our Peer Ambassadors’ stories and explanations of the realities for teens around the country, from different cities, cultures, and futures.  And while the knowledge shared and lessons learned were as rich as they were diverse, one message seemed to unite.  “Respect is not a privilege.  It’s a right, and it starts with yourself.”  Thank you to all of our Peer Ambassadors for teaching us more than you know, and to everyone who advocates and educates on the effects of abuse.

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There is a great opinion article on CNN.com concerning Domestic Violence. LZ Granderson, who is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN wrote a piece on why he can’t bring himself to listen to Chris Brown’s music. The article gives awesome insight in to why it may be hard to move on from the whole Chris Brown/Rihanna incident and is truly thought provoking. Click here to check out the article.

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The women of Kappa Delta Sorority are on a mission to bring together nonprofit organizations and companies dedicated to promoting confidence in women and girls. They realize how important self-confidence is and they have set up the Confidence Coalition, a national movement that will enable women and girls to stand up to peer pressure and media stereotypes, say no to risky behavior and abusive relationships and put an end to bullying. loveisrespect is proud to be a partner in this initiative to help build confidence and we are very excited about helping out.

To celebrate confidence and raise awareness for the issue, the sorority has created National Girls Day on behalf of the Confidence Coalition. It is celebrated on February 28 and you can get more info by visiting www.nationalgirlsday.com. This is just one of many amazing events they have organized and the Confidence Coalition website has a whole list of things you can do to help as well as great tips on ways you can be more confident. Click here to check out the site. Also, be sure to check out the video below:

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This Thursday, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships national initiative to prevent teen dating abuse is launching a campaign to take “healthy relationships to the streets.”  On October 22nd, teens all across the country are putting together local events to get the conversation going on developing healthy relationships before the violence and abuse can even start.

Want to take part and make a difference? Help spread the word by sending out the following email from Start Strong to all your friends and family, and also be sure to follow the steps listed yourself :

BE PART OF A RECORD BREAKING DAY ON OCTOBER 22nd AND STOP ABUSE

On October 22nd,  we  are on a national mission to define a healthy relationship. It’s urgent, and we need YOUR input. Too many people are finding themselves in violent, abusive and damaging relationships. By looking at what a healthy relationship is — how to have them, build them and keep them — we can end abuse. 
 
Be a part of this RECORD BREAKING day. Start Strong’s goal is to get as many people as we can across the country (teens, adults, parents, grandparents, anyone and everyone!) tell us what they think about healthy relationships.
 
Below are ways that you can participate on October 22nd. A few minutes of your time can make a  lasting difference in someone’s life.  
 
1-      Help us spread the word by forwarding this email to your friends and family.
2-      Go to www.startstrongteens.org and give us your relationship feedback. We need to know what you know.
3-      IMPORTANT! Post a conversation starter to your Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/yfxr7yl) or Twitter profile. This will have a major impact.

For example:

(insert name) how do you start strong? Join the conversation http://tinyurl.com/tothestreets

(insert name) is on a mission to define a healthy relationship. Join the conversation http://tinyurl.com/tothestreets

(insert name) is wondering how do you define a healthy relationship. Tell us how to Start Strong before it ends wrong http://tinyurl.com/tothestreets

Thank you for doing your part to make sure that violence and abuse are never tolerated.
 
The Start Strong Community

Learn more about Start Strong at www.startstrongteens.org.

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Students at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas kicked off Domestic Violence Awareness Month this past Wednesday.  Voices Against Violence, a program organized by the UT Counseling and Mental Health Center put together the event. Program coordinators, workers, and volunteers passed out 2,000 carnations attached to stories of Texans who died in 2008 because of domestic violence.  An arch of purple balloons was set up on campus where students read aloud some of the stories, discussed warning signs of abusive relationship and gave spoken-word performances. Click here to read more about this amazing event.

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 loveisrespect has an exciting campaign to share with all of you! We are taking part in My Time to Shine, a joint venture with Grammy award winning artist Martina McBride along with her daughter Delaney. We want to educate both teens and parents on safe dating habits and get the word out about teen dating abuse. Click here to visit our campaign page and get more info. Be sure to take our cool, new dating quiz as well!

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October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and there are a ton of ways you can support the cause. We put together a list of cool things you can do this month to help spread awareness.

• Put a purple ribbon up as your facebook/twitter/myspace profile pic to show your support for ending domestic violence.
• Post a link on your profiles to www.loveisrespect.org to spread healthy dating awareness and let your friends know about the awesome resources we have if they ever need help.
• Send anti-dating violence awareness mass texts to your friends.
• Organize an anti-dating violence rally at your school.
• Submit an article on teen dating violence awareness to your school newspaper.
• Write a letter to get a Teen Dating Abuse curriculum in your school; Dosomething.org has great info on the steps you need to take.
• Create an anti-dating violence PSA and post it to your YouTube account.
• Print out our Teen Dating Bill of Rights and post it around school (with permission from school officials).
• Print out our quiz cards and hand them out at local events.
• Create a LOVE Mashup  and send it to your friends to promote healthy dating habits.
• Create a project for It’s Time to Talk Day. DoSomething.org is offering $250 Grants for your projects. Click here for more info.

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