To raise awareness around the issue of domestic violence, in October 2011, The Verizon Foundation awarded $105,000 in grants to nine Georgia organizations, including GCADV, to support programs dedicated to educating teens about dating and domestic violence prevention.

“We work very hard to prevent family violence before it happens. Reaching teens, both boys and girls, regarding healthy relationship behavior, signs of abuse and prevention techniques will help improve our state’s families for future generations,”  says Nicole Lesser, Executive Director.

Through this $15,000 grant, GCADV is announcing its new Facebook page and its 2012 Safe Tech & Healthy Relationships Artwork Contest!

GCADV is asking teens to express their ideas on dating violence using graphic software and/or free hand art work and to name a new training to increase awareness and conversation around teen dating violence . Contestants will name and demonstrate through poster design, GCADV’s new Teen Dating Violence Initiative.  Participants will be invited to engage with domestic violence advocates from around the state to share their views, experiences, and opinions on how to decrease teen dating violence and become advocates for a meaningful cause.

For more infomation, visit http://teens.gcadv.org/

See contest Facebook page HERE

The United States still has a lot of work to do in regard to addressing the prevalence of domestic violence.

In fact, an in-depth story from the Arizona Republic has pointed to the fact that in the last several years, the number of deaths from domestic violence has stayed fairly consistent in Arizona.

While this means there hasn’t really been an increase in deaths, there certainly hasn’t been a decrease either.

Fortunately, researchers are seeking more information about domestic violence and specifically about domestic violence that ends in death. Not surprisingly, much of the research has a mental health aspect.

For example, the article mentioned how substance abuse, depression and estrangement are just some of many risk factors that could increase a battered woman’s chance of eventually being killed by her partner.

Later, the article explained that generally before a battered woman’s life ends at the hands of her partner, there are warning signs. For example, the partner usually engages in a specific kind of abusive behavior called “intimate partner terrorism” or “coercive control.”

“Coercive control is almost exclusively the domain of men,” according to the article. “It is long-term and tyrannical abuse that includes, often in addition to physical violence, attacks on a woman’s self-worth, degrading remarks and obsessive monitoring of her whereabouts and her contact with other people.”

The abuser often has mental health issues like depression or substance abuse, and struggles with obsessive and possessive behavior. In some cases, abusers cope with massive self-shame by severely abusing or killing their partners.

Mental health experts have more insight into how domestic violence can impact mental health, and what issues sometimes predispose people to being in relationships that involve domestic violence.

Nerina Garcia-Arcement, a licensed clinical psychology and a clinical assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine, said in an email that there is a gradual process that leads from “normal” relationships to relationships involving domestic violence.

“Women don’t enter violent relationships where they are being hit from day one,” Garcia-Arcement said. “They date men that pay attention to them, are possessive and slowly begin to limit their behavior and social interactions (i.e., the woman can’t talk to friends or family as much or at all, or she can’t wear certain things). Often this controlling behavior is couched as ‘loving them.’”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/06/19/domestic-violence-and-mental-health-how-are-intertwined/#ixzz1yRcSCARp

Registration for the first 100 teens is ‘free’ and underwritten by Verizon Wireless.

In the last two years, PADV’s Teen Dating Violence Summit has covered topics including bystander intervention, technology safety, and the role the media plays in influencing teen relationships. In 2012, we will be joined by an extraordinary survivor of teen dating violence, Johanna Orozco, who has been seen on Oprah, ABC’s 20/20, and The View. Why was Ms. Orozco selected as the Keynote speaker for PADV’s 2012 Teen Dating Violence Summit? The romance between high school seniors Johanna Orozco and Juan Ruiz Jr. lasted for a year and a half before Ruiz became violent and possessive. After she broke up with him (in 2007), he shot Orozco in the face, a crime that resulted in years of suffering and reconstructive surgeries for the young woman.

Doctors said the fact she survived at all was nothing short of miraculous, according to ABC News. However, Orozco said that throughout her ordeal she never felt sorry for herself. “This happened for a reason, and right now it must be terrible and horrible, but [there is] a good reason why it happened,” she told the news provider. In fact, the 21-year-old now works to turn her story into an example for others by speaking to groups of teenagers, urging girls to leave violent relationships and lobbying for legislation that would provide protection orders for threatened teens, according to the news network.

The day will wrap up with an opportunity for teens to win custom made dresses and men’s wear for prom from American Intercontinental University (AIU).

For more information, contact Laura Barton at 404-870-9615 or laura@padv.org.

ATLANTA, GA (WABE) – Advocates against domestic violence say more needs to be done to address teen dating violence in the state. Those advocates define teen dating violence as a pattern of acts by a dating partner of physical, sexual, financial, verbal or emotional abuse.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1782353/Atlanta./Advocates.say.State.Needs.to.Address.Teen.Dating.Violence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsATsokFRlA

What can your organization do to support Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention  Month this February? Here at Start Strong Atlanta we want to reach out to our collaborating partners and community organizations to offer our support on any planned activities this coming February.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any thoughts on any collaborative events or activities.

In addition to offering our collaboration on events and activities, we have an amazing group of Start Strong Atlanta Teens who perform a play about teen dating violence that makes an excellent addition to any event.

Here are some brief information sheets to encourage participation in Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month:

Call To Action- Parents

Call To Action- Youth Influencers

Call To Action- Students