Rbt Wood Johnson launches Teen Dating Violence initiative

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has launched the largest national health initiative to stop the spread of teen dating violence. You can read their press release about this initiative by clicking HERE. The project is called Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships. It is the largest initiative ever funded to target 11- to 14-year-old youth to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. Check out the Start Strong website by clicking HERE. Their press release notes that

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1.5 million high school students nationwide experienced physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year. Even more alarming, a study released by the Multisite Violence Prevention Project reveals that half of all sixth graders say they are dating and 42.1 percent of these children report being victims of physical dating violence.

Many states fail to adequately address teen dating violence. Break The Cycle, a teen-violence prevention organization, gave A grades to only five states -- including Oklahoma! Read about it HERE and see Oklahoma's Report Card HERE.

Even still - those laws just react after the fact. What's needed is better awareness for young girls so they don't get into bad relationships in the first place. RWJ's Start Strong project focuses on four core strategies involving in-class curriculum, policy change, work with mentors and communications strategies to empower youth to develop healthy relationships.