Program targets dating violence ---
A four-year initiative in Oakland is helping young people understand what makes a healthy relationship—before they enter their teen years and become vulnerable to dating violence and abuse.
Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and Start Strong Oakland is among the nearly dozen sites involved across the country. The $18 million initiative aims its preventive messages at 11- to 14-year-olds. Locally, it already has raised significant awareness through a school-based curriculum and a weekly radio show where youth express their opinions on dating violence. Start Strong Oakland is working with more than 1,000 students in four diverse middle schools.
The project has found that partnering with older teens in the community has been especially helpful and well received.
“The older teens have taken the lead in developing our media campaign, managing our web outlets and communicating with younger youth,” said Tatiana Colón, director of education and youth services for Start Strong Oakland. “Our youth leaders have also been sharing their knowledge and creating a learning community that allows them to work together on the teen dating violence issue.”
According to a 2008 study by the Alameda County Teen Dating Violence Task Force, 44 percent of Oakland youth reported being intimidated, physically hurt, and/or emotionally abused by a boyfriend or girlfriend. Other studies draw similar conclusions nationally and suggest the issue is more prevalent in certain communities. The 2009 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that among girls in ninth through 12th grade, dating violence was higher among Blacks (14.8 percent) and Hispanics (11.4 percent) than Whites (7.2 percent).
Domestic violence typically is a learned behavior, and Start Strong seeks to break the cycle of violence.
“We want to find the most promising ways to prevent teen dating violence because we know that the earlier that young people get relationships right, the better chance they’ll have to make their lives better over the long term,” said James Marks, M.D., M.P.H, RWJF senior vice president and Health Group director. “By addressing healthy relationships with middle school students and engaging communities to embrace this idea, we’ll give those young people a strong advantage.”
Through RWJF and its California partner, the Blue Shield of California Foundation, Start Strong is enabling 11 cities and states to create and evaluate comprehensive prevention models. RWJF chose the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF), one of the nation’s leading organizations working to prevent domestic and sexual violence, to serve as the initiative’s national program office.
With support from the FVPF, Oakland and the other communities are employing four strategies in their efforts: implementing a healthy-relationship curriculum in local schools; encouraging policy and social changes needed to support healthy relationships; utilizing and engaging teen leaders, teachers and parents to mentor youth; and employing social media networks to reach youth.
In Oakland, the Family Violence Law Center is the project’s lead organization in partnership with Oakland Unified School District, Youth ALIVE! and Youth Radio.
Nationally, forty percent of girls age 14-17 report knowing someone their age that has been beaten or physically hurt by a boyfriend, as cited by Family Violence Prevention Fund from Children Now/Kaiser Permanente Poll. In addition to the physical threat and harm, research indicates that teen victims of relationship violence exhibit increased rates of eating disorders; high-risk sexual behaviors; and increased teen pregnancy and suicide rates.
For more information about Start Strong Oakland, visit: http://www.startstrongteens.org/communities/oakland.