Interval House Crisis Shelters & Centers for Victims of Domestic Violence has been awarded a highly competitive grant from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), according to an announcement released this week.
The three-year grant, of which only four are awarded in California by Cal OES, will be used to execute a “school-based teen dating violence education and prevention program” with Wilson High School as its selected partner.
Interval House has been working to prevent teen dating violence for 35 years, most notably with its Presidential Award-winning “Second Generation” Teen Program, the first program in the nation developed by youth at Interval House, using their own experiences to educate others and inspire those involved to break the cycle of violence, according to the release.
Staff at Interval House will lead the recently grant-funded program to foster healthy teen relationships through positive prevention and awareness activities, including hands-on participation in youth peer training leadership, an evidence-based adolescent dating abuse prevention classroom curriculum offered voluntarily to students and school-wide violence prevention campaign activities, according to the release.
“We are so proud and thrilled to expand our partnership with Wilson High School,” stated Interval House Executive Director Carol Williams. “Both Interval House and Wilson High School have unique histories with youth empowerment programs, and we believe this is a positive collaboration that will offer important prevention information for teens.”
While National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month was recently celebrated in February, there’s still so much more to do to decrease the risks of victimization and violent behavior. Just three of the statistics cited by the release include one in three US teens experience dating abuse by their partners, 43 percent of LGBT teens reported experiencing physical dating violence and 81 percent of parents believe teen dating violence is a non-issue.
The goal of the three-year grant program is to chip away at changing these norms.
For more information about Interval House, visit the website here. To learn more about Woodrow Wilson Classical High School, click here.