Teens Making A Difference

Demetrius Phillips just graduated from high school in Oakland and he wants to give back to his community. And it looks like he has found a great way to make a difference.

Demetrius works with the Family Violence Law Center in the Relationship Abuse Program in Oakland. He goes where the teens go and he talks with them about how to understand what abuse is and how to prevent it.

“Basically there are six types of abuse: mental, emotional, financial, physical, sexual and verbal,” says Demetrius.

You can find him and other teens, parents, educators, youth organizations, health care workers, and community leaders coming together to build environments that support healthy relationships and ensure violence and abuse are never tolerated.

This national campaign kick-off, called Start Strong, is the first collaborative meeting involving leading San Francisco and Bay Area based organizations, including Blue Shield of California, the Family Violence Law Center in Oakland and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Teen leaders from Start Strong sites across the country together with, community partners, practitioners and experts will share new ideas on how to combat this growing epidemic and innovative plans from their own communities. The youth summit will involve workshops on community building and creating social movements, as well as the design and development of the “Start Strong Youth Network,” a way for teens from all of the different Start Strong sites across the country to share information and best practices and collaborate.

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 new study released by the Multi-Site Violence Prevention Project reveals data that half of all 6th graders say they are dating and 42.1% of these children report being victims of physical dating violence.

“Teen violence is not taken seriously. It stems out of things. It didn’t come out of nowhere,” says Demetrius. “Plus if you look at teens in an abusive relationship, later, that could turn out to be someone’s father.”

Look for Demetrius at local health fairs, poetry slams, on-line, and at local middle and high schools. Today you can find him and many other trained and concerned folks at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco.

http://www.startstrongteens.org