Ending the cycle
of violence begins with education and awareness. We are proud of our role as
one of the first and the largest providers of teen relationship violence
prevention services in New York City. Our RAPP –
Relationship Abuse Prevention Program - teaches thousands of high school
students NOT ONLY what constitutes consent - but how to have a healthy
relationship. In the
past decade and a half, the Center has designed, developed and implemented
school-based teen relationship abuse prevention programs that have reached more
than a million students with the message that healthy, equal, and consensual
relationships are necessary for a hopeful future.
Teenagers involved in
relationship abuse have a difficult time learning academic subjects. Girls
experiencing relationship abuse feel self-conscious and afraid, do not want to
go to school, and find it difficult to study.
[1] Victims of teen relationship abuse often
exhibit harmful behaviors, such as using alcohol, tobacco or drugs; becoming
pregnant, and attempting suicide.
[2] Adolescents who harm their dating partners
are more aggressive and more depressed than their peers.
[3] The rise of social media has only exacerbated
the effects of teen relationship abuse.
In RAPP, students learn how to
identify what it means to have healthy relationships. RAPP stresses the
importance of setting strong boundaries, and being able to assertively say how
something makes a person feel. Our students are taught abusive relationships
are about power and control; and, about the different types of abuse which are emotional,
verbal, and physical. They can recognize abuse within a relationship, and know what
healthy relationships looks like.
[1]
Lipson, J. (Ed.). (2001). Hostile hallways:
bullying, teasing and sexual harassment in school. New York: AAUW
Educational Foundation.
[2] Silverman, J. G., Raj, A., Mucci, L. A.,
& Hathaway, J. E. (2001). Dating
violence against adolescent girls and associated substance use, unhealthy
weight control, sexual risk behavior, pregnancy and suicidality. Journal of the American Medical Association,
286(5), 572-579.
[3]
Centers for Disease Control. (2012). Understanding teen dating violence fact sheet.
Retrieved from
www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/teen_dating_violence.html.
