"What makes you valuable and beautiful is who you are as a person."
- Hartford High School H-Term student
Empowered to start the conversation
A group of amazing Hartford High School students spent some WISE time with us during their H-Term. H-Term is an intensive week of learning, where students get to explore new concepts and experiences outside the classroom, independent from their regular curriculum.

This incredible group of young women spent their time together thinking and talking about how they can use their collective power to end gender-based violence. The group watched a documentary film about beauty standards, took a field trip to the WISE Program Center to meet with staff, visited women-owned businesses in White River Junction, and experienced Aerial Yoga at Open Door. As they made their way around town, they created a video Empowered to Start the Conversation exploring what makes someone beautiful as a way to neutralize the harmful expectations of gender that are used to justify violence.

The young women found community with each other through their shared experiences and reflected on the value of being in solidarity with each other. We are so honored that we were able to be a part of their experience.
Dating, technology, and abuse
 
Technology is an undeniable component of dating relationships. Teens use online platforms to flirt and experiment with relationships. Practicing romantic relationships online can feel safer than in the real world.

Social media helps them feel connected to their partners and lets them show how much they care. Fortunately, research shows that the majority of these experiences are positive.

Sometimes what teens see and experience online can be harmful. Without carefully processing these situations, abusive behaviors can become normalized which makes it easier for abuse to exist.

Click here to learn more about how technology is used and what we all can do to help the teenagers in our lives navigate the online world.
Congratulations Katie!

We are pleased to share that Katie Berthasavage is the recipient of the 2019 Not in Our House Scholarship.

Katie shared she "learned that gender-based violence creates an unsafe and unsupportive community particularly for young girls.... Especially during the years of adolescence, girls need more encouragement and positive reinforcement than ever in order to reach their full potential academically and socially."

Katie was also one of our WISE Words student celebrities in 2017! Click here to listen to her segment.

The Not in Our House Fund was established by the Lebanon Girl's Lacrosse team honoring teacher Natalie Perriello who was killed by her husband in 2012.

Please join us in congratulating Katie for her achievement. Good luck at college next fall!
Follow us @WISEuv
Are you following our Instagram yet? Our posts intentionally focus on engaging youth in our communities, and offer information relevant to the adults in their lives and to the community at large.

Last week we shared the not-so-clever strategies that are used to convince girls to send nudes. Research shows that only 8% girls share pictures because they actually want to and 92% share pictures to make the other person happy or to avoid conflict. If we want to stop sexual harrassment, we have to be willing to have these conversations. Want to learn more? Follow us @WISEuv .
Congratulations Pat!

Pat Glowa, a WISE Board member was given the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award by the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, in recognition of her "compassion, empathy, respect, and cultural sensitivity in the delivery of care to patients and their families."

We are honored to have Pat on our Board and cannot think of anyone more deserving of the recognition.
Leading the Upper Valley to end gender-based violence
Program Center · 38 Bank Street · Lebanon, NH 03766
every hour, every day · 866-348-WISE
tel: 603-448-8922 · fax: 603-448-2799 · www.wiseuv.org