Ten island girls completed Hope Haven’s and MPLUSE Studio Teen Dating Abuse Program held from Monday, July 15th to Thursday, July 25th at the Hope Haven facility. The program aimed to offer a safe space for teenage girls to learn about the red flags of teen dating, violence, and how to ask for support.
Throughout the course, the teenage girls, along with their mentors, learned the importance of self-love. The participants were educated to gain a necessary understanding of abuse, support team, and sense of empowerment that can prevent them from becoming victims of abuse within a relationship. Topics included, what is teen dating abuse and what forms it takes, defining the roles of abusers, target and bystander, exploring how bystanders can help, warning signs of abuse, patterns of abuse, digital abuse and ending teen dating abuse.
Apart from educational and motivational sessions, the girls were also involved in activities that promoted positive coping techniques such as meditating, self-defense seminars, yoga, snorkeling, and arts. One of the participants shared that she most liked the use of real-life stories to teach the concept of teen dating abuse. She further invites more girls to join and learn.
The ten girls that completed the program are Wilma Godoy, Chelsy Lara, Martina Chi, Destanie Beeman, Brianna Guillen, Kharea Noble, Rosario Tun, Keira Gomez, Tresi Gomez, and Samira Perez. Each girl was mentored by a strong, independent, powerful woman, which included: Lisa Marie Forman, Janine Lopez, Hailey Powell, Margaret Hulse, Tammy Alvarez, Rita Konertz-Lee, Lara Goldman, Jeanna Barrett, Michelle Nuñez and Alexis Guerrero.
Hope Haven would like to thank Margaret Hulse from MPULSE Studio, for her contribution to the program, to the women who have taken the time to mentor these girls and help them achieve their goals as they grow into empowered young women; to Robbie Zeske, Kirsten Miglio, Martin Dawson, and Victoria Fearneyhough for taking time out of their busy schedules to teach the girls positive coping techniques; to Rudy Duran, Ricky Jurado, Pancho Glenn and David Nah for treating the girls to a snorkeling trip to Hol Chan Marine Reserve. A special thank you goes out to the parents for encouraging their girls to be part of the program and ensuring their attendance daily.
