Over the weekend, Sheltering Wings, a domestic violence program in Danville, Indiana hosted their second annual Battle of the Bands. Local bands, with members ranging in age from 13-24, wrote songs about dating abuse or sexual assault. Among the bands that performed were Almost Awesome, Scarlet Dienasty, Achoo! I Sneezed, Holy Hand Grenade, 12 Hours of Kaos. The event sounds like it was a lot of fun and a great idea for raising awareness of dating abuse. We haven’t heard which bands won yet but we hope we have a chance to listen to them soon.
And as always – if your local domestic violence program or school is planning an event that focuses on dating abuse, please leave us a comment here. We’d really like to know about it.
For the third year, Jennifer Ann’s Group, an organization formed in the memory of Jennifer Ann Crecente by her father, has sponsored a video game design competition with a purpose – to educate about dating abuse. You can view and play the winning games, Grace’s Diary, A Decision of Paramount Importance, and Jellia’s Friends by visiting the organization’s website.
All of the games mention loveisrespect, National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline as a potential referral for those in need. We hope the Helpline will be able to help some of the people the games reach. For more information about Jennifer Ann’s Group and future contests, please check out their website at www.jenniferann.org.
Have you seen Eminem’s new video, featuring Rihanna, Love the Way You Lie? The video portrays a violent relationship between two characters, but as actor Dominic Monaghan tells MTV news, ’”I think we tried as hard as we could to not glorify the violence, to try and explain that this was a relationship that is by no means ideal and a relationship that probably should have ended a lot sooner than it did.”‘
There’s something you can easily do to support the prevention of dating abuse – vote for Paul Lavallee’s project at Pepsi Refresh all this month. Paul is a long time high school educator that became involved in the movement against dating abuse/domestic violence after a student of his was murdered by his ex-girlfriend. Funding for his project would allow for, among other things, the production and distribution of a dating abuse DVD and curriculum to high schools across the country. Hundreds of thousands of students could be educated to look for the warning signs of an abusive relationship.
You can find out more about Paul’s project, watch a piece of the video, and vote by visiting http://www.refresheverything.com/forjustin. Just click on the “Vote for this Idea” button and follow the instructions on the screen. You can also vote each day by texting 101930 to Pepsi (73774).
Please repost this message or pass it on to your  friends and family. We’d really appreciate your support of this project.
The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence recently made their training In Their Shoes: Teens and Dating Violence available for groups of adults that work with teenagers. The training is designed to allow adults to walk in the shoes of teens, facing obstacles and making decisions as a teenager would – especially where dating violence is concerned. Sexting, pregnancy, homophobia, and stalking are among the special circumstances encountered in the training.
The development of this training was funded by the parents of Dayna Fure, a Washington teen that was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2004. Hopefully, allowing adults a glimpse of the teen perspective will allow them to better assist teens attempting to end dangerous relationships in the future. For more information, visit www.wscadv.org.
Student members of the Center for Youth Leadership at Brien McMahon High School wrote this editorial about dating abuse which appeared in the Hartford Courant today. The Courant has made a pledge to continue to cover domestic violence in their community; Nina Raffio and Roberto Ceja remind us that dating abuse, much of the time effecting those under 18, is also important to keep in mind. Focus on this issue now may help prevent adult domestic violence in the future. We’d like to thank Nina, Roberto, and the Hartford Courant for giving dating abuse attention.
The Seattle Mariners have teamed up with the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence to compete for a Pepsi Refresh grant. Until August 17th, you can support their project, which focuses on the important job of teaching non-violence to young male athletes, by voting up to ten times per day. Please take the time to visit the site, learn more about the project and vote – we’d really appreciate it!
Also, keep an eye out for loveisrespect’s Pepsi Refresh project - coming in October. We’ll need your help too.
Were you at the TACS convention in Arlington, TX Sunday, March 29th where 100s of students representing their schools attended booths? If you came by the loveisrespect, National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline booth and loved the materials there, including the Love Campaign T-Shirts and would like one for your elected student body officials, please contact us at contact@ntdah.org. Because of the large number of students requesting T-shirts, we ask that you limit the request of shirts for those elected officers only, with a maximum of 8 shirts per school.
The rules are there and so are last year’s winners… Can you make a game about teen dating abuse without using violence? We can’t wait to see what you come up with for this great group.
