As we enter the home stretch of summer, we realize that you may have more opportunities to spend time talking to the kids in your life. If camp has ended, if you’re doing some back to school shopping…these are opportunities to start shaping kids’ perceptions about healthy relationships, no matter how young they are. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be presenting a series of blogs…
By Madison Altman, Dana Hall Class of 2016 I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to shadow and learn from Jessica Teperow, Director of Prevention Programs and Dani Patrick, Youth Education Specialist at REACH for the 10 day duration of my Senior Project. At my school we are given the option to complete a Senior Project during our last two weeks of school as opposed…
Today, most stories that make the news about college campuses and intimate partner violence are tales of tragedy; stories of students being assaulted by their peers and the additional pain that too many of them experience when campus administrators mishandle their cases if they come forward for help. These stories provide us with powerful narratives of the prevalence of sexual and dating violence on college campuses…
(Written By a Teenager) Once again, in honor of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, we have a Guest Blogger this week. Julia Leconte is a Junior at Waltham High School and a member of our PAVE (Peers Against ViolencE) peer leaders group. Here’s what she wants you to know about why teenagers might not be aware that a relationship is unhealthy. It Is Hard To Take…
In honor of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, we are turning the REACH blog over to a teen voice this week! Ashley Loc is a Senior at Waltham High School and a member of our PAVE (Peers Against ViolencE) Peer Leaders group. This is what she wanted you to read:
REACH recently welcomed our new Youth Education Specialist, Dani Patrick, to our staff. Read on to get to know Dani a little bit: Tell us a little about yourself. (Where did you grow up/go to school/work before this?) I spend most of my childhood in Flagstaff, Arizona before moving to Connecticut in 2009 to attend Wesleyan University. At Wesleyan, I majored in Feminist, Gender, and…
Sixteen kids who have experienced homelessness and domestic violence got to go to camp this summer with help from REACH and our funding partner, the Steve Glidden Foundation. The kids were between the ages of 5 and 14 (12 were “new” campers we haven’t funded before and 4 were returning). They chose between day camp, overnight camp or camps specifically tailored to their interests such as…
Thanks to an ongoing grant from Community Health Network Area 17, our work with the Waltham High Peer Leaders continued during the summer months. Six rising seniors came to our office for forty hours over five weeks to learn about dating and domestic violence, trauma, children who witness violence, sexual assault, privilege and oppression, media literacy and bystander intervention. They also attended the break up summit…
School’s out for summer! As that last bell rings and everyone heads for the doors, we wanted to take a minute and look back on the great school year that we’ve had with the Peers Against ViolencE (PAVE) Program, which works in partnership with local schools to promote healthy relationships and prevent teen dating violence. First, some facts: Between September 2012 and May 2013 we saw…
Preventing domestic violence is something that has to start young. From an early age we learn social norms and patterns that shape our relationships well into adulthood. For this reason, REACH’s Education and Prevention Program focuses heavily on work with teens, to start building a foundation of healthy relationships. Peers Against ViolencE (PAVE), our teen dating violence prevention initiative, uses classroom lessons and interactive discussions to…
