Reunion Online

In the age of smartphones and smart homes, using technology to harass and abuse has become increasingly common.

At the Golden Globe Awards last month, the #MeToo movement and TIME’S UP initiative took center stage. In a visually stunning show of solidarity, attendees—both women and men —wore black eveningwear and “Time’s Up” pins. But while nearly every woman who accepted an award spoke out in support of survivors in all industries, expressed their gratitude for the silence breakers, and called for change, not one man mentioned the #MeToo or TIME’S UP movements in their acceptance speeches. Not one.

Parents who suspect their child is in an unhealthy relationship may not know how to help. Parents can begin discussing healthy relationships and signs of dating abuse with their children before they even begin dating. Here are six tips on how parents can navigate having conversations about dating violence with their children.

1. Educate yourself.

This Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, Joyful Heart Foundation and One Love Foundation are partnering to share information about healthy and unhealthy relationships. We will provide tips to help adults talk to young people about relationship violence, resources for you or a friend who may be in an abusive relationship, tools to support a survivor, and ways to get involved in stopping and preventing teen dating violence.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Follow us as we share information about the issue, how to support a survivor, and ways to get involved.

This Valentine’s Day, we ask you to start this conversation about domestic violence and healthy relationships in whatever way you can.

Even though 1 in 4 women and nearly one in 7 men are directly affected by domestic violence in the U.S., it remains a largely hidden epidemic. Because we all have a role to play in preventing violence—and because talking about it is one of the first steps to ending it—the Verizon Foundation and CBS Sportscaster James Brown are helping to get the conversation going during a special #YourVoiceCounts Twitter Chat before the Super Bowl on Thursday, January 31 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET.

After The LA Times reported that between 1965 and 1985 The Boys Scouts of America took very little or no action about suspected child sexual abuse, it announced it would review 5,000 cases spanning the past fifty years. The Times investigation found that Scouts’ officials did not report to police hundreds of cases of alleged sexual abuse and that as many as 1,662 male child victims were impacted. This scandal will continue to make headlines as hundreds of files are released from the BSA’s own collection of cases known as "perversion files."

Peace Over Violence is in the midst of holding our third annual Summer Youth Leadership Institute on Violence Prevention. Twenty-five youth are participating in a month-long training learning about the dynamics of relationship and sexual violence and about healthy relationships. These youth are prioritizing violence prevention and learning skills and tools to take with them as they become leaders in their own lives and in their communities.

 I often find myself in awe, but somehow not totally surprised, that turning towards the issues sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse is often so hopeful, so joyful. Maybe you sometimes find yourself thinking the same. It's often inexplicable, or at the very least, difficult to put into words as to why this is. And it can certainly be a strange thing to feel—and to write at this very moment—but it's true. And last Wednesday evening was no exception.