Everyone deserves a healthy relationship.
Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect while feeling supported and safe. For a variety of reasons, many do not. Maybe they've never received healthy relationships at home, they're shy or lack confidence, so latch onto an unhealthy friendship, or a new relationship started good, then gradually turned harmful.
Teens are often surrounded by unhealthy messages, such as hurtful sarcasm disguised as a joke, to movies, song lyrics, and video games with damaging messages. As they begin to date, warning signs of harmful relationships can be hard to identify.
Our goal at Positively Impacting Communities (PIC), is to uplift others by:
Promoting healthy relationship traits
Help others recognize the warning signs of harmful relationships
Teach how to help someone who is in an unhealthy or abusive relationship
Harmful relationships are often thought of as a dark topic. But we believe by shining a light into the darkness, Christ's love can overcome it, and others will be able to avoid, get out of, and/or heal from these relationships.
Studies show:
Over 53% of dating abuse starts between the ages of 11 - 24
15% of female and 5% of male high school students experienced sexual dating violence in the year before the study
48% of women and men have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner
It isn't just about the abuse a teen may be enduring. Unhealthy or abusive relationships have immediate and long-lasting effects that can impact their emotional, physical, and mental health as well as future relationships.
In future posts, we'll share information on healthy, unhealthy, and abusive character traits, developing a safety plan, break-ups, healing, moving on, and much more. Some will be written by Dee Dee, a survivor of a three-year abusive teen dating relationship, and others will be written by licensed counselors.
We hope you'll help share the message that Everyone is Worthy of a Healthy Relationship.
For more information, please visit our website, follow us on Facebook, subscribe to receive blog posts and the quarterly newsletter, read or share the book with others, or book a presentation at your church, school, or business.
