By Dan Karpiel

The Surveyor

The numbers are staggering. One in three American teenagers is a victim of dating violence. Each year over 1.5 million high school students nationwide experience physical abuse at the hands of a person they are dating. It is estimated that, annually in the United States, over 1,200 young people die as a result of relationship abuse. That’s more than three per day.

On Wednesday, April 10, Grace Place in Berthoud will be holding an escalation workshop that serves to raise awareness and prevention of teen-relationship violence. The workshop, put on by the Berthoud-based Ashley Doolittle Foundation in conjunction with the One Love Foundation, is centered around a film-based discussion that opens people’s eyes to the warning signs of relationship abuse. The escalation video was designed for One Love by three researchers in the field of gender-based violence prevention. 

The workshop is free to attend and pizza and drinks will be provided. High school and college students, parents, educators, health providers, and anyone else dealing with young people, are all strongly encouraged to attend. All students who attend will receive either a free tee-shirt or pop socket, and one student will win a $100 Visa gift card.

Said one person who attended a recent workshop, “I attended this workshop last night with some senior 4-H members, and came away very moved and impressed with the program. The workshop focuses on recognizing signs of an unhealthy relationship both for those in the relationship and for friends and family. I would highly recommend it to anyone parenting or working with teens.”

Another said, “This was such an informational workshop both for teens and parents and can apply to unhealthy friendships also.”

Berthoud resident Ann Marie Doolittle, who serves as president and chairman of the Ashley Doolittle Foundation, explained that after her daughter’s death she was invited to speak at schools and discovered students often found traditional education about violence prevention was boring, uninteresting and uninformative.

After discovering the work being done by One Love, Doolittle did a test run and received positive feedback from the students in attendance. Rather than duplicate what One Love was already doing, Doolittle opted to create a partnership between the two organizations and bring the message to Colorado. The hope is one day this program will be part of the instructional curriculum in all Colorado high schools.

According to Doolittle, “To date, 668 colleges and 398 high schools are using the workshop across the country; and the teachers, principals and counselors have given One Love overwhelming feedback that the content is relevant to their youth and helps to spark in-depth conversations about the topic matter.” 

Thorough research and investigation has been done on the subject of relationship violence prevention, and the workshop designed as a result has the backing of the Boston University School of Public Health.

According to Doolittle, “Students who had gone through the escalation workshop recognized that dating abuse was a problem on their campus after learning about the warning signs of abuse, and were more prepared to intervene as bystanders to their peers. So not only were they more aware of the issue once they learned about emotional abuse, but felt they were better equipped to address it.”

The film that serves as the centerpiece of the escalation workshop is one that will relate to students, spark their interests, and is intended to serve as an opening for discussion.

Said Doolittle, “We believe that in order to put an end to teen dating violence we need to help both the victim and the potential abuser. But, in order to do that, we need to educate our youth and our community on what a healthy versus unhealthy relationship is, and we need to do it in a way that is meaningful and sticks with them. The escalation workshop is a start to doing that.”

The escalation workshop will be held on April 10 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Grace Place. Further information can be found at www.ashletdoolittlefoundation.org or via email at [email protected].