We found news of this initiative on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website:
Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan are meeting with teen leaders, their parents and program directors from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships initiative to discuss teen dating violence. Youth representing four Start Strong communities: Bridgeport, CT., Boston, MA Providence, RI, and Bronx, NY, are participating, along with their parents, Start Strong site leaders, Esta Soler, President of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the Start Strong National Program Office, and Kristin Schubert, Program Officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Today’s event is part of the Department of Justice’s year-long commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which is raising public awareness of the many forms of violence against women. Today’s meeting is being held in conjunction with nationwide events as part of the sixth annual It’s Time to Talk Day, organized annually by Liz Claiborne Inc. to draw national attention to the importance of talking about domestic violence, teen dating violence and intimate partner abuse.
Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships (Start Strong) is the largest initiative ever funded to target 11-to-14-year-olds to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Blue Shield of California Foundation* are investing $18 million in 11 communities across the country to identify and evaluate the most promising strategies to stop dating violence and abuse before it starts.
Link to the rest of the article.
