Youth Rise raising awareness for Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

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By Kaylee Su and

Cheryl Bowdridge

Special to The PREVIEW

The students of the Pagosa Springs High School Youth Rise class start the year of 2019 off with multiple projects. These students don’t only create positive energy around their school, but also outside in there community.

Projects such as painting windows during Domestic Violence Awareness Month and tying bows on light posts create an awareness not only for students, but for the people of town, as well. Our goal as a class is to help our generation create a new way of looking into the world. Whether it is a hard subject to speak about, we allow that subject to become a norm, without shame,when speaking of it. Keeping open-minded is the key of this class.

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. Students are creating an endless list of projects for others. Students are leading projects at the high school such as an Instagram contest where students are encouraged to post healthy relationship pictures using Youth Rise hashtags for the month of February.

The Clothesline Project is displayed at the high school to remind students that teen dating violence is an issue that affects our friends, peers and loved ones. The Clothesline Project is a display of shirts that were created by students and survivors of domestic violence to show their interpretation of domestic violence and dating violence on their loved ones. Mojo’s Coffee house at the high school will be dressing all of its coffee with sleeves that have red flags or positive relationship tips on them. Listen for public service announcements on Feb. 11, Wear Orange for Love Day is Feb. 12 and students will host a Chalk About Love event on Feb. 14.

Youth Rise will be raising awareness about teen dating violence through awareness tables, where they will give out class-created swag as a reminder during February that 60 percent of our students report knowing someone who is in an abusive relationship. We know that 60 percent of students report having been in an abusive relationship or knowing someone that has, yet 81 percent of parents believe it is not an issue and only 54 percent of parents have ever talked to their teens about it.

Follow us on Instagram, @pshs.youth.rise, to see what the students are doing every day to help in our community.

If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, call Rise Above Violence today at its 24 hour hotline, 264-9075, or use the new teen text line at 747-0221. Together we can live in a “Violence Free Pagosa.”