Prevention and Education
Prevention and Education Program
The role of Anna Marie’s Alliance’s Prevention and Education program is to increase awareness about issues surrounding relationship abuse. We accomplish this with professional training and interactive presentations, support groups, and other initiatives designed to support our mission.
Through our prevention and education programming, advocates reach hundreds of school-aged kids every year, teaching them how to identify healthy interactions and those that aren’t; through the work of our prevention and education staff, Anna Marie’s Alliance is working to change the trajectory of relationship abuse by informing and empowering the next generation.
School Youth Programs
Anna Marie’s Alliance’s Prevention and Education department’s School Youth Advocates are out in the community and in area schools with programs to help teach kids the skills they will need to create a community where violence is not tolerated. Because early intervention is key to violence prevention, advocates work to help teens and pre-teens understand and develop healthy relationships with the people they date, their friends and peers, and their family members.
By reaching kids and teens during their formative years, these programs are impactful, instilling an understanding about boundaries and acceptable ways to interact that carries with them into their adult years. The goal? For a new generation that rejects violence and respects the rights of everyone to live a peaceful, fulfilling life free of abuse.
For middle and high school students, our programming includes individual support and educational groups that meet for 12 to 15 weeks each year. Classroom presentations on dating violence, safe social media use, healthy relationship-building, and many other initiatives support the effort to change the trajectory of relationship abuse.
Children K-6 receive classroom sessions on bullying, safety, how to be a good friend, and other topics.
Dating Violence and Sexual Assault Resources for Youth
If you are concerned about a case of violence, assault, or human trafficking, contact the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center at 320-251-4357 or the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888.
If you or someone you know is a victim of relationship abuse, here are some resources:
Anna Marie’s Alliance Advocates are available to talk with you 24-hours a day, seven days a week:
320-253-6900
loveisrespect.org is a great resource website for teens.
Rape Abuse and Incest National Network:
http://www.RAINN.org
Sources:
http://www.loveisrespect.org/pdf/Dating_Abuse_Statistics.pdf
In Love and In Danger by Barrie Levy
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6304a1.htm?s_cid=ss6304a1_w