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FEBRUARY 2021
NEWS & UPDATES
Volume 19 | Issue 2
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FEBRUARY IS TEEN DATING VIOLENCE
AWARENESS MONTH (TDVAM)
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February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM). This month is dedicated to raising awareness about teen dating violence and to promote healthy relationships.
Teen dating violence is more common than many people think. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey data indicated that, in the U.S., approximately 1 in 4 females and 1 in 7 males experience intimate partner violence under the age of 18. Teen dating violence is an issue that affects everyone; not just teens, but also their families and the climate of their schools and other settings where youth congregate. Our youth are our most precious resource. Together, we can work to identify, address and prevent teen dating violence; in doing so, we can create a future that is free of violence. In our homes and in our communities.
But what is teen dating violence? Teen dating violence includes the very same behaviors that occur in adult intimate partner violence. It is a pattern of coercive behavior/tactics used by someone against their intimate partner in an attempt to gain or maintain power and control. Types of abuse can include, but are not limited to, physical, sexual, psychological, and technological. According to the CDC, 1 in 11 female high school students and about 1 in 15 male high school students reported having experienced physical dating violence in 2017. In the same year, 1 in 9 female high school students and 1 in 36 male high school students reported having experienced sexual dating violence.
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WHAT IS LOVE? ART CONTEST |
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This February TDVAM, we invite you to join the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NYSCADV) to raise awareness. Teens and young people across New York are invited to participate in NYSCADV’s What is Love? Contest!
Participants ages 12-20 are invited to submit a piece of artwork that expresses their idea of “What is Love.”
Entries are accepted for the 4 categories below:
- Visual Arts (painting, sculpture, drawing, mixed media/collage)
- Literary Arts (short story/essay, poetry)
- Graphic Arts (painting, drawing, designing in digital medium, including memes)
- Performance Arts (video entries including performed skits, dance, musical performance or compositions)
Prizes will be awarded to top entries! The grand prize winner and their mentor will each receive a $100 Visa gift card. Winners in each of the four categories will receive a $25 Visa gift card, and one grand prize winner will have their artwork highlighted in various NYSCADV materials and awareness campaigns.
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Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month is a perfect opportunity for parents and other adults to broach the subject of dating and what it looks like to have respectful and equitable relationships with the young people in their lives.
NYSCADV is thrilled to offer two webinars in support of those efforts. As a part of the Because We’re Dads Initiative (Click here to learn more), NYSCADV is hosting a conversation in which we’ll explore the ways that fathers are involved in and can respond to and prevent dating violence as well as promoting and modeling healthy relationship behaviors.
What can dads do to prevent dating violence? How can dads support their sons, daughters and qender-queer and gender non-conforming kids to promote respectful and equitable dating relationships? What roles can dads play in helping to shift our communities and social environments towards gender equity and justice?
What is Love, Part 1: How Dads can (and are) responding to and preventing teen dating violence
Join us on Tuesday, February 16th, along with activists Quentin Walcott and Bill Schaefer, as they engage in a lively and unscripted conversation with activist, trainer, author and consultant Rus Ervin Funk. All three are fathers as well as leading voices and activists in working to advance and promote gender equity and justice. This conversation will include the roles that dads can have as parents, as members in their communities, in their jobs and workplaces and as men organizing other men in their communities.
Our second webinar discussion will focus on how adults can support LGBTQI+ youth as they navigate school, community and home settings where discrimination based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression is not the exception but the norm. According to a 2019 school climate survey conducted for LGBTQ students by GLSEN, most respondents in New York reported experiencing anti-LGBTQ discrimination ranging from verbal harassment and bullying to assault (Click here to read the 2019 GLSEN report). Another study from the CDC shows that LGBQ youth contemplate suicide at almost three times the rate of heterosexual youth. The rate is even higher for trans and gender-nonconforming youth with studies showing a range of thirty to fifty percent of trans and non-binary youth reporting they have thought of or attempted suicide. We also know that having one trusted adult can make all of the difference to a young person and that there are many ways one can be an ally.
What is Love? Part II: Creating and Sustaining Affirming Spaces for LGBTQI+ Youth
Join us on Friday, February 19th as NYSCADV and our colleagues explore how adults can support LGBTQIA+ youth as they navigate school, community and home settings where discrimination based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression is not the exception but the norm.
Featured speakers, James Young from Queery, Max Micallef of GLSEN Lower Hudson and Raffy Rios of the Anti-Violence Project, will discuss methods for engaging parents, teachers, school administrators, counselors, coaches and other adult influencers. This dialogue will explore the policies, programs, services and supports that can be put into place to ensure that LGBTQI+ youth are afforded safe and nurturing spaces to be themselves.
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NYSCADV Virtual Budget Advocacy Day: February 23rd
All are Welcome to Participate
New York State consistently has the highest demand for domestic violence services, and the highest number of unmet requests for services, in the country. For example, on just one day in September 2020, more than 8,300 domestic violence survivors received services. More troubling, on that same day, 1,900 requests for services were received but could not be fulfilled due to stagnant funding, decreased resources or staffing challenges.
Unfortunately, the situation has escalated during the Pandemic. Calls to crisis hotlines, requests for legal advocacy, counseling and other non-residential services, and requests for short-term financial assistance have all increased. Yet funding for these services is either non-existent, decreasing or flat. Many domestic violence programs are barely getting by financially and making difficult decisions regarding how to continue providing high-quality, trauma-informed services with the funding available to them. Many programs are using financial reserves or obtaining lines of credit to keep the lights on and shelters staffed.
In order for New York State to ensure domestic violence services are sufficient to address the growing need, it is critical for New York to make a meaningful investment in domestic violence services in our state. NYSCADV is urging New York State to support increases to critical funding in the budget so no one who is asking for shelter or other domestic violence services is ever turned away.
Our FY’21-‘22 budget priorities include:
- Adding a $10 million emergency fund to ensure sustainability of New York’s domestic violence services during the Pandemic.
- Increase the TANF funding set aside for non-residential domestic violence services to $6 million.
- Maintain $5 million from last year’s budget to implement a flexible funding model pilot project.
- Restore $2,356,000 for domestic violence programs and legal services for victims.
More information about these priorities is available on our website here.
If you would like to join NYSCADV and DV advocates around the state for this year’s Virtual Budget Advocacy Day on February 23, please click here to register.
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NYSCADV presents a series of four webinars based on the “The Allstate Moving Ahead Curriculum” for financial empowerment, created by the Allstate Foundation and NNEDV.
Economic abuse is a prevalent form of domestic violence. Even before the current public health crisis, lack of financial independence prevented 94-99% of survivors from being able to leave their abuser (NRCDV). In the short-term, economic abuse can hinder a survivors’ ability to plan for and achieve safety away from the abuser. In the long-term, economic abuse can carry devastating consequences, including ruined credit, employment issues, homelessness, and legal issues, which can adversely affect a survivors’ ability to achieve financial stability and independence.
- Attendees participating in this webinar series will: Have an increased ability to apply trauma-informed, survivor-centered services to survivors of economic abuse;
- Gain valuable tools necessary to assist survivors in financial safety planning and economic empowerment practices; and
- Be introduced to the Moving Ahead curriculum and its modules.
Who should register:
Registration is open to domestic violence advocates of private, nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations and programs that have a primary purpose of providing shelter and supportive services to adult and youth victims of family violence, domestic violence, or dating violence, and their dependents. This includes programs that are licensed by the NYS Office for Children and Family Services or have local NY Department of Social Services contracts to provide domestic violence services, either residential or nonresidential.
Here is what will be covered in each session and links to registration. All sessions will meet from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM:
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2/4/21: Module 1: Understanding economic abuse, safety planning, divorce, and child support. ASL interpretation is provided. Click here for the webinar recording.
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2/11/21: Module 2: Fundamentals of financial empowerment, budgeting and saving, banking options, assets, and liabilities. ASL interpretation is available. Click here to register.
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2/18/21: Module 3: Credit report, understanding credit score, how to improve credit, and bankruptcy. ASL interpretation and captioning is available. Click here to register.
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2/25/21: Modules 4 & 5: Financial paperwork, home mortgages, auto loans, long-term financial planning, financing options to continue education, investments, retirement, and medical, and life insurance. ASL interpretation and captioning is available. Click here to register.
All sessions will be recorded and recordings can be made available upon request. To request access to webinar recordings, please e-mail nyscadv@nyscadv.org.
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