It’s been a busy season so far for Start Strong Atlanta, and the great work of the Start Strong teens is being shared with experts and abuse prevention advocates on a national and regional level.

On December 10, Atlanta teens led two interactive sessions at the Be Proactive Foundation’s Growing Greatness Summit. During the two 45-minute sessions, entitled, “No Excuse for The Abuse,” attendees learned about developing and promoting healthy teen relationships, engaged in group discussions and participated in role-playing activities that addressed how to resolve conflicts in teens in dating relationships and how to be an active bystander.

On December 2, Start Strong Atlanta was recognized by the Metro Atlanta Violence Prevention Partnership for their outstanding programming with the Pioneering Teen Dating Violence Prevention Work award.

This Fall, Christine Agnew-Brune, M.P.H., presented at the 139^th American Public Health Association Annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on the site’s use of a youth-led, social networking website for dating abuse prevention.

KeepitStrongATL.org, their interactive, teen-led website, provides a discussion forum for youth to explore relevant topics like, how to use social media appropriately when in a relationship and best practices for ending a relationship. A Q&A with Christine and Melissa Kottke, M.D., M.P.H., of Start Strong Atlanta appeared on the RWJF New Public Health blog, and touched on how this innovative resource is helping teens engage on important and relevant topics.

“Online and mobile communication is an integral part of teen life,” said Christine Agnew-Brune. “And [it’s] where they go to engage with one another socially. Start Strong Atlanta developed KeepItStrongATL.org to provide youth with space to voice their own norms about relationships and challenge harmful ones.”

For more information on the Start Strong Atlanta teens, visit their website, www.KeepitStrongAtlanta.org and for regular updates follow them on Twitter: @StartStrongATL.

Start Strong Atlanta