ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This manual would not have been possible without the generous funding of the Ontario Women's Directorate, as well as, the hard work, enthusiasm and commitment of the steering committee.  The two project directors were the spark that initiated the program and fanned its flames while the co-ordinator made it all happen on a day to day basis. A special thanks to our steering committee members.

Thank-you to the schools, Waterdown District High, Flamborough Centre and Balaclava, who brought the program to life and finally to the students who cared enough to learn about dating violence themselves and then were brave enough to pass their knowledge on to others.

INTRODUCTION

This manual describes the Youth Dating Violence Prevention Project that was undertaken by Flamborough Information and Community Services and Good Shepherd Martha House in the spring of 1999.  The project, intended to address concerns with dating violence, was developed with the help of a community steering committee. The project included:   

*    A Teen Summit - This was held in March of 1999 for male and female high school students interested in the issue of dating violence.  At the summit students were asked to sign up for a training program which would prepare them to make dating violence presentations to grade 8 students.  

*    Training - Twenty-three high school students were trained as peer educators.  The students were involved in creating the presentations they would make to middle school students.

*    Peer Presentations - The high school students made presentations to 7 classes of grade 8 students.  Pre and post-test evaluations indicated that both the teen summit and the peer presentations were effective in educating students about healthy and unhealthy relationships. 

*    A manual.  This creation includes a section on how this program might be implemented in the future as well as detailed instructions for all the educational tools that were used in the peer presentations.
The Manual is available for a fee of $25 from Flamborough Information & Community Services.