by Rona Amiri, BWSS YOUth Ending Violence Consultant

February is Youth Dating Violence Awareness Month! Battered Women’s Support Services YOUth Ending Violence Prevention Program will be taking this month to provide awareness about violence in youth dating relationships. As part of creating greater awareness we will be presenting facts and statistics, we will discuss ways in which we can interrupt sexist and abusive behaviour, the role boys and young men have in ending violence and finally the role of media.

Youth dating violence is a pattern of domination where different tactics/tools are used to maintain power and control of ones partner. It is also important to understand that youth dating violence is also a form of gender violence. We know that girls between the ages of 15-19 experience 10 times more violence in relationships then young men[1]. This is why it is critical to have both girls and boys involved in ending violence in youth relationships. It is Important for boys and young men to take action against sexist and abusive behaviors. The reality is that boys and young men are expected to be tough and in control so violent behavior is often seen as an appropriate way to express themselves within relationships. Fundamental inequalities and sexism in our society lead to abuse against girls and young women because they are often objectified.

Our YOUth Ending Violence program provides youth with the knowledge to recognize what dating violence is as well as how to prevent it, support friends who may be in an abusive relationship and have a discussion around what they want in a healthy relationship. We also look at the roots of violence and discuss the role of media and societal expectations of what it means to be feminine and masculine.

Four ways you can spread awareness this month:

1. Share this post!
2. Use the strength of social media! Like and share our Facebook page and invite more people to the discussion on youth dating violence.
3. Follow us on Twitter! We look forward to hearing your thoughts @YOUEndViolence
4. Book a YOUth Ending Violence workshop here!

YOUth Ending Violence

A Promising Practice to Help End Violence Against Girls and Women

Battered Women’s Support Services has delivered youth prevention programming since the late 1980’s. Our program has always included multi media components and discussion within mixed gender and single gender youth environments, primarily within the school system (conventional, alternative and private). The workshops were presented to youth in grades 8-12, primarily in grades 10-12 and on relatively rare occasions grades 6 and 7.  Working with school counsellors, school administrators and youth workers, we consistently provided education workshops to the tune of over 1,600 sessions over the past 20 or so years.  Our program called Dating Violence Education Program consisted of three streams: violence in dating relationships in mixed gender settings, healthy relationships in single (girls/women only) and mixed gender settings and dating Violence awareness for girls and young women.

As demand for our direct services increased in 2005, by 2007 and without funding, we were forced to scale back our Dating Violence Prevention Program to focus our efforts on providing crisis intervention and counselling to young women/women living with violence.  We took the opportunity to reflect on our program and we held a series of focus groups with young women and men evaluating our current program and what works in prevention programming, while we continued to seek funders for the program.  Repeatedly, our applications were denied funding.  Until 2010, when we received $50,000 from Vancouver Foundation to deliver our reconceived Youth Engagement in Violence Prevention Program.

Here is more about Battered Women’s Support Services youth prevention programming:

Youth Taking Action to End Violence Against Girls and Women

YOUth Ending Violence Pilot Project Wrap-Up

We are extremely proud and excited to have completed the pilot phase of our YOUth Ending Violence Project. The workshops focused several different aspects of teen dating violence including: power and control in teen dating relationships; Recognizing tactics that abusers use to maintain power and control; Naming qualities of a healthy relationship.  The workshops also challenged our socialization, i.e. looking at what it means to be feminine and masculine and how those notions play a role in violence against young women in relationships. The workshop also included strategies on how to take a personal stance against violence and be an empowered/effective bystander. We also provided the youth a list of services, including BWSS services, to access for more information and/or support regarding abuse in dating relationships.

Many successes were achieved during our pilot phase and we were able to fully train and support 6 youth facilitators. We delivered workshops in 15 schools, mainstream and alternative and 12 community based organizations/groups throughout 7 different communities.  In total 59 workshops were facilitated, 44 of the workshops were one hour, 14 were 2 hours and 3 were 3 hour workshops! Overall, we reached 1023 students, of which, 987 completed an evaluation! We received some amazing feedback from the youth in the evaluations proving that youth are engaged in learning about and preventing teen dating violence.

Here are a few quotes from the evaluations:

“the presentation will help reduce/prevent abuse when I am in a relationship to know my rights as a woman”

“I would be able to know what to do if my friends or myself encounter this situation”

“The presentation made me feel that it is my right to stand up for myself if something is wrong in my relationship”

“It gave me a lot of info on how to be a good boyfriend”

“Manhood is not all about being strong and tough”

“I learned how to be an empowered bystander:  thank you!!”  Here’s more about YOUth Ending Violence pilot project from two facilitators discussing teen dating violence and their experiences as facilitators.

As we move ahead, we are integrating learning approaches that support youth with awareness and safety planning with gender-based cyber-bullying, as well as, lethality in dating violence situations. For more information and to book a workshop email yev@bwss.org