On February 4^th, Peace Over Violence, grantee of the Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships intiative, held their 3^rd annual Violence-Free Teens Conference for youth service providers, educators, advocates and violence prevention activists. During the conference many topics were covered including: why middle school matters within the rubric of violence prevention; how issues of intimate partner violence, family violence, and gang/street violence are interrelated; and why we must all be involved in promoting healthy relationships among youth. 

This year also marked the first designated youth engagement track at the conference.  During these youth sessions, teen leaders participated in activties designed to further hone their leadership, collaboration, and prevention education skills.

Several Start Strong sites participated in the conference. Start Strong Boston’s Casey Corcoran led the closing plenary on healthy and positive ways to end relationships and building skills with a cross-generational perspective. Start Strong Rhode Island’s Kate Reilly led a workshop on how to use social marketing to promote healthy relationships as a means of preventing teen dating violence highlighting the web site, www.hkupwithrespect.com. Start Strong Bronx’s Christina Alex led a workshop on strengthening partnerships across fields, producing outreach materials and engaging youth. Start Strong Oakland’s Tatiana Colon premiered their new “Taking Control” movie on intergenerational violence as well as teen dating violence and led a discussion on the purpose and impact of the youth-created movie.

Other conference participants included Break the Cycle, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), The Echo Center and Linda Chamberlain, Ph.D. M.P.H. 

Start Strong Los Angeles