RAPP Summer Program 2015

Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (RAPP) Peer Leaders are learning how to stop relationship abuse, volunteering at the Center's shelters and completing community service projects. In their "spare" time, the teen leaders participate in fun events, like beach trips, and museum tours at the Museum of Tolerance and LES Tenement Museum.

The students showed off their cooking expertise and expressed their culture on Multi-cultural day at the Center. Dishes ranged from Jamaican jerk chicken to Spanish empanadas to Russian baked goods.  Entertainment then ensued with students acting out skits with props given to them only moments before. It was definitely a memorable day in the midst of a great summer.

"In the RAPP program I experienced things that I would have never thought of doing. This program helped me learn how to communicate with others and broke me out of my shell. Also just the experience in being here, meeting people from different backgrounds, associating (myself) and doing activities with them made me close to each and every one of them. The RAPP program is an awesome experience. You will want to do it every year."
- Alexis R.

Thank you BMO Capital Markets – You “Wrote the Book” on Fundraising

We want to thank AALPs – the African American Latino Professionals – of BMO Capital Markets for hosting the sixth annual BMO Book Sale to support the Center's programs and services. Special thanks go out to Veronica Chin and Trena Banks for their terrific leadership. Veronica and Trena also head up the BMO children’s toy drive at Christmas.

This year’s great event supported the Center with a gift of $3,000!

Weddings That Give Back...

That is the motto of wedding planner, Amy Shackelford's, new spin on wedding planning in Brooklyn & NYC.  We are excited to share our new collaboration with Amy & A Modern Vow!

A Modern Vow will donate 5% of their proceeds to CADV. We can not express how much generosity like this, means to those affected by DV.

Click here to visit A Modern Vow

For more information about AMV contact Amy at amy@amodernvow.com

Standing Up Against DV

On behalf of the residents, students, staff, & Board of Directors, of the Center Against Domestic Violence, we want to thank everyone involved with our Stand Up Against Domestic Violence Special Spring Event! The night was a huge success largely thanks to our stimulating honoree, diligent staff, hilarious comedians, silent auction and delicious food. Due to substantial help from sponsors, general donations, guests, and silent auction bidders, CADV was able to raise over $80,000 for our youth programs! We could not have pulled this event off without the help of our supporters.

This year, we were sad to say goodbye to Stand Up honoree and CADV Chair, John L. Miscione. John has worked tirelessly for the past nine years to build an even better organization and help even more survivors and victims of domestic violence.  During his Chairmanship, the Center became a leading voice for saving the Teen Relationship Abuse Prevention Program, which provides teen dating violence prevention and intervention services on campuses teaching over 50,000 teens citywide. During John’s Chairmanship, we were able to increase the number of RAPP graduates receiving the Center’s Stuckey Family Scholarship.

As John said goodbye on Thursday night he reflected on his time as Board Chair; “Sitting on the board of the Center you ask how does this get done and then you look at Judy Kahan and the executive team at central office ... While over the years we might worry about strategy or fundraising, but we’ve never worried about our client’s needs being met. We are confident in the team we have and I thank you for how hard they work for our clients and the center”.

John will be missed, but his legacy at CADV will live on, as well as, the dedicated mission to end domestic violence.

RAPP Teaches Teens About Healthy Relationships

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.

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[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.

CADV Stand Up Against DV - Join Us!

Tickets are available for our Special Spring Event. Join Us! 

Did the President’s PSA at the Grammys have the Right Message?

The message at this year’s Grammys was loud and clear – stop violence against women. We watched as President Obama made his proclamation to end violence against women, and challenged artists to encourage their supporters to do the same. The President spoke the truth, 1 in 5 women will be victims of rape or attempted rape, and 1 in 4 women will face violence or abuse at the hands of an intimate partner.  He claimed violence against women is not OK, and launched the White House #Itsonus campaign – because in fact, it is on us all to stop the violence.  

In many songs and videos, violence against women is not only condoned but celebrated.  Following the President’s speech, Target aired a 3-minute music video ad of Imagine Dragons’ “Shot” about shooting everything they love. The President’s words were addressed to an audience that included Grammy nominees, Chris Brown, and R. Kelly.  What kind of message is being sent by saying we needed to stop the violence, while rewarding those personally involved with the violence. Violence against women is celebrated in many artists’ songs and videos. Songs and videos may demonstrate violence and the degradation of women, but these albums sell millions of downloads every day. When asking these artists to help stop the violence, what are we asking them to do?  

It is time to stop violence against women, and it is time to change the stigma associated with rape and abuse. Still assault against an intimate partner is not prosecuted as harshly as assault against another associate or a stranger.  Somehow we still see domestic violence as only a family problem, but violence against women is a social and a public health issue. The President is right that in one way #Itsonus, but in another way, it is on him and on every elected official. It is on us to keep up the pressure, to make sure the Violence Against Women Act is reauthorized next year, to make sure campuses receive needed fund to keep students safe from assault, and to make sure state and local laws support adequate shelter and permanent housing for survivors of domestic violence. It IS on us – AND our elected officials – AND on popular culture heroes like musicians and athletes - to change the conversation to help eliminate violence against women.