DV Collaboration to Prevent Dating Violence

This project is designed to increase the capacity of Texas runaway and homeless youth (RHY) programs, to identify and prevent dating violence among youth.  The project is a joint effort of the Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS), a statewide nonprofit organization with a 23-year history of delivery of leadership and training and support services to runaway and homeless youth programs across Texas, and SafePlace, a Texas domestic and sexual violence center that is a nationally recognized leader in the development of resources and training related to dating violence and related issues facing adolescents. 

The three-year project will:

1. Provide trainings to increase awareness and knowledge among Texas Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) program staff and their domestic violence partners; use trainings to disseminate a RHY dating violence guide and protocol along with the Expect Respect manual. 
2. Award three mini-grants to establish community collaborations for preventing teen dating violence. 
3. Activities to develop materials to support the above activities include the following:
   1. Develop a Protocol for Texas runaway and homeless youth (RHY) programs, in order to increase staff capacity to respond effectively to incidents and disclosures of dating violence by youth being served.
   2. Develop a Resource Guide for RHY Dating Violence Prevention, based on efforts of RHY programs to implement or adapt components of the nationally recognized Expect Respect dating violence prevention program.

Possible strategies for engaging RHY programs in collaboration with DV and other community partners include:

• Train staff on dating abuse & prevention
• Identify and assess risk for youth in abusive relationships
• Provide dating violence information to youth verbally and through visual displays
• Provide Expect Respect support groups
• Provide Safe Teens leadership training
• Staff model and support healthy relationships and respectful behaviors
• Review/create agency policy to reflect improvements in responses to and prevention of dating violence
• Engage the community in addressing and preventing dating violence

Previous Training(s)

Dating Violence: Responding to and Preventing Abuse in Teen Relationships
Date:  June 18, 2010
Location:  Dallas

Project staff:
Kim Schenck, LMSW, TNOYS - kschenck@tnoys.org
Barri Rosenbluth, LCSW, SafePlace - brosenbluth@safeplace.org
Randy Randolph, SafePlace - rrandolph@safeplace.org

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