Students Taking Action for Respect, a program that provides youth with leadership skills and knowledge to positively influence their schools and communities around sexual and dating violence, had its Green Ribbon Week from March 31 - April 4. STAR teams all over Texas promoted the theme “Taking Action for Equality” in their schools and communities.


In Amarillo, eight youth leaders reached over 500 fellow students through
their STAR presentations. In addition, the group borrowed the idea of a “Pink Out” from the TAASA Green Ribbon Week Guidebook.

The “Pink Out” began when two seniors in a high school in Canada organized their classmates to wear pink shirts to school after a freshman male student was
bullied for wearing a pink shirt. The teens in Amarillo followed suit by getting fellow students, teachers and school staff to wear pink shirts. Through this campaign, they successfully spread messages that challenged gender stereotypes in their community. They also gained the support of several local sponsors, including Nationwide Insurance, Taylor Petroleum, Hollywood Tans, Banana Bush Salons, and Merle Norman Cosmetics Studios.

One student in the Amarillo program, Christopher Perez, said of Green Ribbon Week's Pink Out: “Teen dating happens all over the world and teen dating violence happens a lot. It is our job as leaders to teach them that violence is wrong”. Thanks to STAR leaders like Christopher, and everyone who participated in the Pink Out, teen dating violence education and awareness continues to grow throughout the state.

Twenty-eight people, representing eight state coalitions and ten community-based organizations dedicated to the work of ending men’s violence against women, gathered recently in Atlanta for the first installment of the Training Institute for Mobilizing Men (TIMM).

Guided by social change organizations Men Stopping Violence and A Call To Men, TIMM is a 2-year technical assistance program that helps statewide family violence coalitions to support and inspire men’s nonviolence in their communities. With funding and counsel from the Office on Violence Against Women, TIMM creates a unique opportunity to partner state coalitions, which have national influence and access to a broad range of resources, with local, grassroots organizers, who bring an essential perspective to effective nonviolence work.

The gathering, which took place in early March, was the first of two four-day trainings for the TIMM participants. In addition to the trainings, TIMM supports this collaborative effort through quarterly conference calls, a TIMM participant listserv, and bi-monthly technical assistance calls.

The eight participating state coalitions are: Idaho, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, and Texas. Some of the participating community-based groups are the Milwaukee Women's Center (WI), the Family Refuge Center (WV), Batterer Intervention Services Coalition (MI), Dominion Family Services (MI), the Morgantown Police Department (WV), Not Tonight DV Peace, Inc. (NC), and Men Against Violence at North Texas University (TX).

Working with men provides an important set of approaches and tools that have great potential for improving women's lives. In May, influential decision makers who fund, implement or study programs on reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, and violence prevention gathered for a seminar, co-hosted by ICRW and Instituto Promundo and sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization (WHO). The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the importance of working with men and boys to promote healthy lifestyles among women and men, learn what is happening in the field with this approach, and develop a consensus on how to move forward.

The seminar proceedings and recommendations are summarized in the recently released publication, "Engaging Men and Boys to Achieve Gender Equality: How Can We Build on What We Have Learned?" The seminar and publication also are a springboard for a series of meetings, which will be held in late November in Geneva and Salzburg, Austria, to further develop this approach among partners and donors.

To view the publication, visit:
http://www.icrw.org/docs/Engaging_Men_and_Boys_to_Achieve_Gender_Equality.pdf

To commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Center Against Family Violence (CAFV) of El Paso, Texas held their annual press conference on October 2nd, 2007. The press conference featured the new chair of the CAFV Board of Directors, Charles De Wetter, and the University of Texas – El Paso football coach, Mike Price. These men, together with many other advocates, gathered to send a clear message: “Family violence is a family issue and men must come forward to make it an unacceptable, intolerable and criminal act.”

When approached by CAFV’s Community Relations Director Aaron Hernandez, Price, coach of the local college football team, decided to take a stand with the Center Against Family Violence. Hernandez says that CAFV “wanted a strong voice in the community to accompany [their chairperson], and Mike Price was that person.”

Fathers – and father figures – can protect young people from domestic violence. The vast majority of fathers do not commit domestic violence. But fathers and father figures can do even more to prevent the long-term harm that domestic violence causes in the lives of young people. This Father’s Day, the Office of the Attorney General has joined with TCFV to encourage fathers to take a stand against domestic violence. Watch The Press Conference | Sign the Pledge