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Safe Passage Teen Support Group forming

Herald-Tribune - 10/9/2017

Nearly 1.5 million U.S. high school students experience physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006.

Other types of abuse range from stalking to emotional, sexual and ? the newest form ? digital abuse, when the use of texting and social networking is used to bully, harass or intimidate a partner.

For the first time, Safe Passage, a six-county domestic violence facility located in Batesville, is starting a 10-week confidential Teen Support Group here.

This group is for students 14-17 in Franklin, Ripley and Dearborn counties who are in unhealthy dating relationships or have histories of detrimental relationships. It will focus on dating violence education, asset building and activities aimed at preventing future unhealthy relationships.

Safe Passage Youth Services prevention coordinator Morgan Tedesco expects the group will start meeting in January "because we need these first months to get a core group of people who are committed." The eight to 12 students will be part of a closed group and attendance at all 10 sessions will be required. "The idea is they'll feel more safe to disclose information" with stable participation.

The push to begin a group came when Tedesco and prevention coordinator Bridgitte Taylor were at Lawrenceburg High School doing a Students Stand for Respect program based on an Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence curriculum "that we were lucky enough to pilot," recalls Tedesco. "A student stayed afterwards and disclosed a bunch of horrible information and events that had happened to her. We left that day in tears and came back and got to work."

Taylor agreed, "At different schools students would come up multiple times afterwards and disclose different things." For those teens, the prevention coordinators provide one-on-one counseling and point them to www.loveisrespect.org, which has a 24/7 hotline persons can text or call.

As more and more students approached them, "we wanted to be able to provide an in-person opportunity to meet" and discuss incidents and feelings, so the support group idea was born.

Prevention coordinator Samantha Santen says parents also wanted help for teens. They would come up and ask, "'Do you have anything for our kids?'" Santen also believes some parents were personally going through domestic violence "and they didn't want their kids to experience the same thing."

According to Taylor, statistics show "if you're growing up in an abusive household, you're more likely to find yourself in an abusive relationship. We've had teachers reach out to us, too," reporting that some students need education about relationships.

Other Hoosier domestic violence facilities offer support to teens. Tedesco reports they met with employees at Prevail, Noblesville. Its Teen Support Group is one of that nonprofit's biggest youth services. "We got a lot of ideas from them."

Safe Passage prevention director Erin Ortiz, who ran a Teen Support Group in Chicago, and Tedesco formulated the support group's curriculum. "We actually just finished it. A lot of research was put into it .... We drew from a lot of different places (including Prevail and www.loveisrespect.org) and our own experiences."

She adds, "Our support group will be very education based. It is as structured as possible. We want it to be educational and not therapeutic because we're not therapists."

Taylor says participants will learn characteristics of abusive relationships and be able to consider "what their relationship looks like." Some teens might realize, "'Hey, this is a red flag. This is not OK.' They'll feel equipped to help break the cycle" of domestic violence. Other participants may speak up to friends who have problem partners.

Tedesco will be the lead facilitator and the others will be co-facilitators.

She says, "We want this group to be empowering so they have a group of people they can turn to and look up to and understand they don't have to continue on this relationship path."

If this group is successful, what effect could it have on area domestic violence in the future? Tedesco answers, "Our hope is we'll work ourselves out of jobs. Hopefully in the future we won't have to have a Teen Support Group for dating violence."

The facilitators know some students will recognize they could use the help of this group. In addition, "a parent could identify 'This would be a good fit for my teen,'" Santen points out.

To join the group, before January teens or their parents may call Safe Passage, 812-933-1990; its 24/7 Help Line, 877-733-1990; or email prevention@safepassageinc.org.

After contacting Safe Passage, coordinators will ask prospective participants questions by phone, then schedule a face-to-face meeting, which the parent should also attend. "We want them to be comfortable and know who we are," Tedesco observes. Teens who will be commuting to Batesville for the sessions will be given $10-$20 gas cards.

If there is a lot of interest in the group, "we have talked about starting one in January and another in the spring after those 10 sessions are over. We will eventually open it up to all six counties." The other three counties the nonprofit serves are Jefferson, Ohio and Switzerland.

Debbie Blank can be contacted at debbie.blank@batesvilleheraldtribune.com or 812-934-4343, Ext. 113.