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By: Jason Jowers, M.S. MFT

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Talking about domestic and dating violence is one of the hardest subjects to broach when talking with clients. Many times it is kept secretive and elicits feelings of shame for those who have experienced it. How can we make it easier to talk about, not just for adults in abusive relationships, but for children in these families and especially, for teens who might be facing issues of dating violence as well?

With this in mind, we wanted to highlight the history of this awareness month, as well as share some resources we found to be helpful in giving teens and parents the tools for support. According to this dating violence blog, National Domestic Violence Awareness Month first began in 1981 by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Since then, the Violence Against Women Act was passed in 1994, and this legislation helped to provide programs and services for domestic violence victims and families. Great strides have been made in various realms of society to lessen the overall rate of domestic violence instances. However, it is still an ongoing problem that has only morphed with the times and moved onto the internet and within social media with cyber-stalking situations.

Domestic violence affects millions of people worldwide. Here are a few resources and organizations that we would like to highlight when it comes to the important work of preventing domestic violence:

Hopefully, with the right amount of support, we can all do our part to help raise awareness in helping those who are dealing with domestic and dating violence.

References

Break the Cycle (2019). It’s National Domestic Violence Awareness Month! Retrieved from: https://www.breakthecycle.org/blog/it’s-national-domestic-violence-awareness-month

This post was written by members of OneOp.

Blog Image: Photo by U.S. Air Force [DV Awareness Month by Jessica Hines, October 21, 2011, CC0]