Outshined by a month that glorifies relationships, February is also Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, and locals advocates are offering advice to to raise awareness.
According to the National Institute of Justice, 1 in 5 college students has been a victim of relationship violence, and 1 in 3 women will experience a form of relationship violence at some point in her lifetime.
Debbie Weiss, University Police victim advocate, described the pattern of abuse as cyclical, going from a phase of “wooing” to violence and then returning to the “wooing” phase to regain the victim’s trust.
“I have heard many times the bruises will go away, and the scars will heal, but the pain of mental and emotional abuse will last much longer,” she said.
Jennifer Heard, a victim advocate therapist at Alachua County Victim Services and Rape Crisis Center, said she stresses the importance of accessing free counseling offered by local organizations.
“You can always call,” she said. “We have a 24/7 hotline. It gives opportunities for victims to say, ‘This is what I’m going through. I don’t want to go through it anymore, what do I do?’”
UF students have access to Sexual Trauma/Interpersonal Violence Education, known as STRIVE, a peer-education group overseen by GatorWell that works toward the prevention of relationship violence.
Rita Lawrence, GatorWell interpersonal violence prevention coordinator, said the program aims to prevent potentially dangerous relationships from becoming violent.
“It’s more of a primary prevention focus,” she said. “There are a lot of other warning signs you can look for.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 2/24/2014 under the headline "Advocates push for dating violence awareness"]
