Feature Story

December 4, 2009

U.S. Education Secretary Duncan and Attorney General Holder Meet with Youth Leaders and Their Parents to Discuss Teen Dating Violence

From Education Newsfeed:

As part of the Justice Department’s year-long commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder met today with teen leaders, their parents and program directors from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships. The discussion around teen dating violence was held in conjunction with nationwide events as part of the sixth It’s Time to Talk Day, organized annually by Liz Claiborne Inc. to draw national attention to the importance of talking about domestic violence, teen dating violence and intimate partner abuse.

“For too long, we’ve been unwilling to face the reality that teen dating violence occurs,” Secretary Duncan said. “It’s been a taboo subject folks would simply not talk about. But we can’t afford to do that anymore. Too many young people are getting hurt. We must all do our part to break the silence and work toward eliminating teen dating violence.”

“We must engage the broadest spectrum of community partners in order to stem youth violence, and a cornerstone of that partnership is young people themselves,” Attorney General Holder said. “The Department of Justice is committed to working with young people to develop innovative solutions to help prevent teen dating abuse.”

Start Strong, the largest initiative ever funded to target 11-to-14-year-olds to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse, is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the Family Violence Prevention Fund.

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