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Safe Dating For Teens
JFS offers a program to teach students about dating
violence.
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and friends because of their part-
ner's jealousy, or often apologiz-
ing for their partner's behavior.
A "yes" answer to any question
indicates the teen should reeval-
uate the relationship.
Ms. Carp discusses statistics
which show, that when abuse oc-
curs, women are the victims 97
percent of the time. She also
points out that a woman is beat-
en every 18 seconds.
Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein is a
teacher at Congregation Beth
Shalom whose students went
through the program. He had no
preconceived ideas of what Ms.
Carp and Ms. Porvin would dis-
cuss.
`The were very sensitive to the
needs of the kids," Rabbi Licht-
enstein said. "At first, they (the
students) were a little bashful. It's
a hard topic to discuss. On the
whole, they dealt with it very ma-
turely.
"It was an extremely worth-
while program and I'd recom-
mend it for all high-school kids.
They need to be sensitized to
what is going on. We as a Jewish
community don't realize these
kinds of things happen. We are
not immune."
Ms. Carp says there is more de-
nial in her Jewish audiences than
in the gentile ones she has ad-
dressed. The duo made visits to
high schools in Milford and War-
ren, as well as to several area con-
gregations.
So far, more than 250 students
have gone through the one-hour
program and an additional 200
B'nai B'rith Youth Organization
teens will participate May 11.
Although Ms. Carp and Ms.
Porvin will soon complete their
intern work at JFS, Sandy Hy-
man, the director of the Depart-
ment of Children, Adults and
Families at JFS, said she hopes
the program will continue under
the direction of next year's JFS
graduate interns. D
PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPITT
Put down a floor.
ecause dating violence oc-
curs more frequently than
most people realize, Jew-
ish Family Service gradu-
ate interns Stacey Porvin and
Randee Carp want teens to know
they are not immune.
Ms. Porvin and Ms. Carp, who
last week completed their mas-
ter's degrees in social work, have
been taking their message to area
schools and youth organizations.
Their goal is to raise awareness
about dating violence and edu-
cate teens on what community re-
sources are available.
This is the first educational
outreach program JFS has done
for teens on the topic. First im-
plemented in November, the sem-
inar is offered at no charge.
"We want to increase teen
awareness on dating violence and
teach students that it is about
power and control," Ms. Porvin
said. "This (program) has been
successful because it's interactive.
We're encouraging kids to think
about the issues and then talk
about them."
These leaders begin the pro-
gram with a fictitious story about
a violent situation and ask the
participants to examine it.
In one scenario, the man is dri-
ving in an unsafe manner and
when the woman he is with tries
to discuss her discomfort, he be-
comes abusive.
In another situation, a guy tells
his girlfriend to dress more mod-
estly to avoid capturing the at-
tention of other men.
The teen-age participants are
then asked to identify the prob-
lem and propose solutions.
Later in the program, a hand-
out is given to the students, al-
lowing them to evaluate their
own relationships. It instructs the
teens to ask themselves if they
are frightened by their partner's
behavior, afraid to disagree with
their partner, verbally degraded,
discouraged from seeing family
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Randee Carp and Stacey Porvin: Teaching teens about domestic violence.