AWARE: It's Not Love - A Teen Dating Violence Prevention Initiative

Empowering teens and young adults with the skills and information they need to build healthy relationships.

The Problem

Dating violence is a serious public health issue that affects people of all ages, genders, cultures, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, and sexual orientations. According to the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, one in three high school students in the U.S. is a victim of physical or sexual violence from a dating partner, a figure that far exceeds rates of other types of youth violence. Dating violence can have negative long-term effects on one’s health. In addition, teens who are victims of some form of violence from a dating partner are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors, like using drugs and alcohol; be depressed; do poorly in school; have eating disorders; and increase their risk for victimization during college. Recognizing the need for more prevention work in the community, JCADA created AWARE®, its dating violence prevention initiative. AWARE® empowers teens and young adults with the skills and knowledge they need to build healthy relationships by facilitating interactive experiential workshops about dating abuse and healthy relationships for middle school, high school and college students, parents, and educators at local schools, synagogues, camps and youth organizations.

The Solution

AWARE®’s interactive and experiential workshops for high school and college-age students help participants learn to identify the warning signs of intimate partner violence and how to help themselves or a friend. AWARE® workshops are culturally adaptable to address the well-documented barriers marginalized communities - ethnic, racial, religious, or national - have around accessing mainstream services. The cultural competence of AWARE®’s program content lowers these barriers to accessing services by creating a safe space for discussion and learning while empowering participants to utilize the support network available to them.

AWARE®, is working to expand its efforts to engage public and private secondary schools as well as local colleges and universities in the Greater Washington region as partners in dating violence prevention.

Planned Use Of Funds

Funding from Shared Nation would help underwrite the costs of bringing in our prevention workshops for host organizations in the Greater Washington Region.

Stage of Development

  • Early Stage
  • Established Prototype
  • Scaling
  • Other

Organization to Receive Funds

The Greater Washington Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse

This project was nominated by: