The following Video Diary depicts a common type of abuse teens may experience in relationships – anger/emotional abuse. This is characterized by someone putting you down, making you feel bad about yourself, name calling, playing mind games, humiliation, making you feel guilty or making you think you are crazy.
Natalie’s boyfriend Mike is mean, makes fun of her and calls her names. These are all red flags of an unhealthy relationship. View the video and read our peer advocate advice on addressing this situation after the jump.
There is a great highlights video we wanted to share with you from the Start Strong Austin Kick Off event for Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. Recorded at the Carver Museum, this video spotlights all the great entertainment acts and performances from the event. For those of you unable to attend the event, check out the video after the jump. Read more…
As you all know this is the first year that Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention is being honored for a whole month instead of the first week of February as it has been in the past. This is largely thanks to the support and influence of several U.S. Senators as well as Vice President Joe Biden. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Joseph Lieberman(I-CT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have been huge supporters of moving the awareness up to a month and we are very grateful for their hard work. We have a video clip of the Senators along with Attorney General Tom Perelli discussing teen dating violence awareness and prevention after the jump, so check it out! Read more…
Boston teens have a message to send to Chris Brown in response to the recent apology video he released: your apology is not enough. Teen peer leaders in the Start Strong program decided to speak out as both fans of Chris Brown and young people concerned about the issue of teen dating violence. Check out the response video below, or click here to view the full story. These teens have also created an online petition via Facebook, titled: “A Message to Chris Brown.”
We just wanted to send out a huge congratulations to Coralee Trigger! Coralee has worked with us in the past and created the Girl Scout Gold Award winning The Line PSA for us in 2008 which has now been accepted in to the 2009 “Reel Teens Film Festival” in Hunter, NY! The Line discusses teen dating issues by tackling the question: “What is the line between love and control in a relationship?” We have showed the video across the country to train teens, parents, and advocates.
Coralee’s past accolades also include a community outreach collaboration with the Travis County Sheriff’s office which featured a PSA she created with fellow students, titled Control is not Love. Her short documentary Breaking the Chain will also be shown during the film festival. Check out festival screening info by clicking here. Check out The Line PSA below:
We have some exciting news, loveisrespect was recently involved in a story line on the super popular soap opera General Hospital! The show featured a teen dating abuse storyline and called on the expert guidance of loveisrespect to make sure this serious issue was addressed accurately and in an educational manner for teens. A PSA addressing teen dating violence also aired directly following the show. You can catch the soap on ABC weekdays at 3 p.m. ET, and weeknights on SOAPnet at 10 p.m. ET. You can watch the PSA video after the jump.
Hey, did you see High School Musical 3 or SAW IV?Â
In case you have been living under a rock (or have not seen the movie), we ran an ad before the start of movies in parts of California and in parts of Texas . The ad asks a simple question: “Does your relationship need a makeover?” The question makes you think about your current relationship, drawing attention to the fact that you have rights and deserve to be in a healthy relationship. We now have a quiz on our website (www.loveisrespect.org or on our Youtube account at ) that asks about your relationship.
We want to hear what you thought about our ad? Think about all the times you have to be quiet: at school, during a movie (especially High School Musical 3), at church, when your parents are talking to you… the list could go on forever. Basically, you have to be quiet forever, and your opinion is not highly valued. We think differently!Â
Tell us anything you want, good or bad. Was the ad cool or stupid? What parts were your favorites? Did you tell your friends about the ad? If you were in charge of making the ad, what would you have done differently?
If you have any questions or want to talk more about the quiz, call or chat with us (oh yeah, we have a chat service that you can access on our website). This is your chance to be heard, so speak out!    Â
Today we launched our LOVE campaign in partnership with the Texas Office of the Attorney General. We’ll be sending campaign resources out to Texas high schools soon, but they’re available to everyone via our website right now. There’s videos, music, and other sparkly stuff (like the logo above) you can use to help us spread the LOVE message.Â
I was surfing YouTube the other day and I found this great video:
The PSA is great because it gives an overview of topics that we hear about a lot on calls and chats, and stresses the fact that these situations are no less serious or dangerous because the people in the relationships are teens.
The video was produced by pre-teen, and teenage women participating in the Reel Grrls program, an after school program to get youth involved in media. Way to go, Reel Grrls, keep up the socially conscious work!
Videos should challenge others to get involved in ending dating abuse issues in their community and can be up to two minutes long. Check out their website for more information and the complete rules. Winners to be announced in Fall 2008. We can’t wait to see them!
