close Exit Site If you are in crisis, please contact the U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline via phone (1-800-799-SAFE), chat (TheHotline.org), or text (START to 88788), or contact 911 if it is safe to do so. Click EXIT SITE to leave this website immediately. If your device is monitored, consider clearing your browser history after visiting this website.
Donate Now Exit Site
Action Alert

When funding is delayed, programs are left without the resources needed to operate — put [Read More]

Take Action

One is Too Many

Most people have their first relationships while in high school or college. It’s new, exciting, thrilling, sometimes sexual, and perfectly normal. Unfortunately, this can also be one of the most dangerous times in a woman’s life. Women ages 16-24 experience the highest rate of intimate partner violence. In fact, nearly 1.5 million high school students experience physical abuse from a dating partner each year, and more than half of the women who are raped are under the age of 18.

We refuse to remain a silenced majority. Dating violence is domestic violence. It is the use of power and control over one individual by someone who is supposed to care about them. Dating violence is not only physical, but can also include emotional and psychological abuse and behaviors such as stalking, isolation from friends and family, and being possessive. Since this is often their first love or serious relationship, many young people may not have been taught the “red flags” or what to do about them.

It is time to end the silence on dating violence.

As young women and college interns at the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), the victims of dating violence are our friends and classmates; they are the familiar faces on the quad or in the library. We know people in our lives who have experienced dating violence, and odds are that you or someone you know has, too.

What can we do? We can speak up when our friends make jokes about a drunk girl being “easy,” and we can offer support to a friend who is being abused. It is essential to raise awareness among our peers so we can recognize dating violence and have the resources to help one another.

Educating young people to be responsive bystanders is a key element to ending dating violence. You can be there for your friend and listen to them, and you can point out behaviors that are troubling.

Education on healthy relationships exists at our college campuses, but there needs to be more education in middle and high schools, in the media, and in the community at large. Without proper education, information about resources, and guidance on how to support survivors and hold abusers accountable, dating violence will continue unchecked.

Recently, the White House released its “1 is 2 Many” campaign to raise awareness on dating violence. As young adults, we encourage our peers to take a stand against dating violence… because one is too many.

Written by Norielle Aurelio and Abby Stallworth (NNEDV Interns)