Teens promote healthy relationships

Natalia Baltazar

Special to The Enterprise

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM), a national effort to help raise awareness about teen dating violence, provide prevention education, and promote healthy relationships.

Teen dating violence is an adverse childhood experience that affects millions of young people in the United States — about 1 in 12 U.S. high school students reported experiencing physical dating violence according to the CDC. Dating violence can take place in person, online, or through technology, CDC Fast Facts: Preventing Domestic Violence, https://www.cdc. gov/violenceprevention/ intimatepartnerviolence/ teendatingviolence/ fastfact.html, Feb. 28, 2022.

In an effort to raise awareness about teen dating violence and promote healthy relationships, Empower Yolo’s After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (ASSETs) program at Woodland High School, and Empower Youth Service Club at Davis High School are hosting various workshops, activities, and events for students throughout the month.

ASSETs program leaders that work with teens yearround see issues and behaviors regarding teen dating violence, and how social media is affecting relationships. “With the access our youth has to technology and social media now, the way they view relationships has become a bit distorted,” says Brisa Perez, Empower Yolo ASSETs Youth Programs Director, Woodland High School. “There are so many false narratives being showcased on these platforms that they become normalized and sometimes they even glamorize certain unhealthy behaviors in relationships. This becomes an issue when teens consume this information and are led to believe that this is the way relationships work,” says Perez.

ASSETs will host its annual month-long TDVAM campaign at Woodland High School to help educate local teens on the issues, provide a safe space, and equip them with healthy relationship skills.

The campaign will include weekly workshops throughout the month of February. Various interactive activities are being incorporated into the workshops in order to make them both educational and engaging for the students. This year, Empower Yolo’s Youth Advocate will also be cofacilitating these workshops with the ASSETs team in Knights Landing in order to expand awareness in rural areas where workshops like this might not be normally available.

Program leaders’ goals are to raise more awareness about teen dating violence for this campaign.

“Our goals for this campaign are to educate youths on the importance of this topic,” Perez said. “We believe that even reaching five students can cause a ripple effect and lead to an overall increased awareness in our community.”

The ASSETs program has proven success. In 2022 the ASSETs program served 4,141 students.

During the year ASSETs provides prevention education through its curriculum and fosters healthy relationships among the students. “Throughout last semester we held a couple of mental health workshops in which we talked about the way our relationships impact our overall well-being. We plan on having these types of conversations with students and inform them about the effects that our relationships have in our lives both short and long term,” says Perez.

Empower Youth at Davis High School

Empower Youth is a community service club led by students that support Empower Yolo and the children at Empower Yolo’s shelter. The club started with 12 local teens in 2020 and since then has expanded to over 100 members at DHS and also a club at Emerson Junior High School with 24 members. Empower Youth at Emerson will be providing the children at the shelter valentine treat bags and cards promoting healthy relationships. Empower Youth at DHS is planning to raise awareness and promote healthy relationships through club activities.

During the month the club plans to have an Empower Yolo youth advocate speak to students about teen dating violence and healthy relationships. Students led by Holt Klineberg, Empower Youth senior leader are creating an informational video, which will be featured on the breakdown for the HUB, the DHS online news source at bluedevilhub.com. Club leaders also plan to hand out information on services and resources. “Our awareness meetings and events are important for DHS and the community because they help people realize that our town is not immune to teen dating violence. Often, people think of Davis as a little bubble where no harm happens, but in reality, many teens are subject to dating violence, but they don’t realize it because they don’t know what it is. Our meetings are meant to educate people and help them and others realize if they or someone they know are in an unhealthy relationship,” says Tory Agnew, Empower Youth president at DHS.

Empower Youth’s goals are to promote healthy relationships for their campaign. “As members of

Empower Youth, we strongly believe that it’s important to promote healthy relationships with our friends, peers and classmates,” said Sabrina Hazel, Empower Youth vice president.

“Our community plays a major role in educating and guiding our youth. Leading by example is one of the best ways to do this,” Perez said. “When we demonstrate our commitment to youths and are able to foster healthy relationships with them and those around us, we are able to show them what these relationships can and should look like.”

— Natalia Baltazar is the Director of Development and Community Relations of Empower Yolo.