February is teen dating violence awareness month

Each February, young adults and their loved ones across the nation raise awareness about the issue of teen dating violence through Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM). This annual, month-long effort focuses on advocacy and education to stop dating abuse before it starts.

Engaging young adults and teens is key to promoting healthy dating relationships. This involves promoting values of healthy relationships, increasing awareness of dating violence, developing skills necessary to maintain safety, providing information about services available, and creating an environment where young people can reach out for help.

Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month 2023 (1)

Each February, young adults and their loved ones across the nation raise awareness about the issue of teen dating violence through Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM). This annual, month-long effort focuses on advocacy and education to stop dating abuse before it starts.

Dating violence is more common than you may think, especially among teens and young adults: 1 in 3 teens will experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from someone they’re in a relationship with before they become adults.

Tri-Valley Haven (TVH) creates a safer school environment by providing Healthy Relationship and Consent education classes for middle and high school students.

For middle school students, sessions will be conducted to inform pupils about healthy relationships and strong boundaries. Tri-Valley Haven’s preventionists provide techniques to help students respond safely to situations now and for their entire lifetime. The training utilizes “real life” bystander intervention scenarios about relationships that are empowering and help change negative student interactions.

Age-appropriate presentations are conducted to engage and inform students on identifying the signs of a healthy relationship, the warning signs of an unhealthy relationship, safe ways to prevent teen dating violence, as well as sexual assault prevention and consent. Learning what sexual consent is, and how to obtain it is key. TVH incorporates real-life scenarios around sexual consent into our presentations. This allows all students to learn strategies to help them stay safe and help them maintain safe limits. Our focus will be on empowering teens and changing behavior.