DV Collaboration to Prevent Dating Violence

This project was designed to increase the capacity of Texas runaway and homeless youth (RHY) programs, to identify and prevent dating violence among youth.  The project was 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:

1. Provided trainings to increase awareness and knowledge among Texas Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) program staff and their domestic violence partners; used trainings to disseminate a RHY dating violence guide and protocol along with the Expect Respect manual. 
2. Awarded three mini-grants to establish community collaborations for preventing teen dating violence. 
3. Activities to develop materials to support the above activities included 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.

Strategies for engaging RHY programs in collaboration with DV and other community partners included:

• Training staff on dating abuse & prevention
• Identifying and assessing risk for youth in abusive relationships
• Providing dating violence information to youth verbally and through visual displays
• Providing Expect Respect support groups
• Providing Safe Teens leadership training
• Staff modeled and supported healthy relationships and respectful behaviors
• Reviewed/created agency policy to reflect improvements in responses to and prevention of dating violence
• Engaged the community in addressing and preventing dating violence

Guide for Preventing Teen Dating Violence Among Homeless and Runaway Youth in Texas

For more information contact Kim Schenck