Youth Community Leaders Advocating Against Violence

Community Safety

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Numerous youth who grow up in urban, suburban, rural, and tribal communities experience teen dating violence (TDV). Many of those impacted by T.D.V. show a direct correlation with trauma, victimization and perpetration, as identified in the ACEs study. To understand how a youth's experience can create a violent person or lead to victimization we must understand and address the factors that put youth at risk. Those risk factors include individual traits, family history, community impact, peer and social influences. Exposure to violence early in life can lead to problems in future relationships, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and perpetration or revictimization throughout life. A youth survey asked "what they could do to prevent violence, the majority of respondents selected (82.5%) said, "help educate others" (Ibid.). "Only 33% of teens who were in a violent relationship have ever told anyone about the abuse and 81% of parents believe TDV is not an issue."

Through collaboration with local schools, organizations and community, ELAWC's Youth Empowerment Program uses a "Healthy Relationships" curriculum to develop workshops that aim to increase awareness among youth about teen dating violence and encourage them to create healthy lifestyle decisions. Every year more than 2,000 youth get the opportunity to learn the importance of being in healthy relationships V.S. toxic. The Youth Empowerment program has a 20hr Youth Leadership Development Training for youth ages 14-24 who have expressed a deeper interest in violence prevention. In this training, participants are encouraged to think critically about social justice and learn about the intersecting forms of oppression and domestic violence, teen dating violence, and sexual violence (DV/TDV/SV). Upon completion of the Youth Leadership Development Training graduates are invited to become ELAWC Youth Advocates. Youth Advocates take a lead on developing a campaign where they have the opportunity to expand conversations around the root causes of violence. Youth survey the community to understand their stand on domestic violence, sexual assault and teen dating violence. To further comprehend the community, the youth hold community conversations where they engage with the community one on one and create focus groups that help them develop their campaign. Everyone who is involved with the youth help develop ideas for campaign actions which is implemented later on with group consensus.

The work of ELAWC's YEP will help reduce gender based violence, violence among children, adolescents and adults in our community. ELAWC has over 21 collaborations with local schools and community based organizations and have presented to at least to 4,000 students/parents/community members in the past year. A youth survey asked "what they could do to prevent violence, the majority of respondents selected (82.5%) said, "help educate others" (Ibid). LA County residents who have taken ELAWC's Healthy Relationship training have learned how to detect controlling, violent and abusive behavior and advocate for themselves as well as their families. Additionally, residents learn to discuss and put into practice the principles of consent, setting boundaries and self-advocacy. ELAWC is proud of its long-standing commitment to providing culturally competent services tailored to meet the unique needs of Latino families and build safer healthy communities.

The project builds on information gathered in a needs assessment study conducted by ELAWC in Boyle Heights in 2021 that focused on the prevalence of sexual assault and domestic violence in the community. In the spring of 2022, the team coordinated three strategic planning meetings with core members representing the community and the systems that interact with families when violence is identified. Between the fiscal year 21-22 the Y.E.P collected a total of 171 community assessment surveys. The program participants documented the findings and familiarized themselves with the information they gathered. Through various open community meetings, we started receiving requests for presentations in schools and community spaces. We have established partnerships with local schools who schedule us every year to present and fulfill the CA Healthy Youth Act. These partnerships have helped carry out our campaigns.