A new, internet-centered program designed to help teens learn to avoid or get out of bad relationships will soon be available in Sussex County. With a $2,500 grant from the Delaware Community Foundation, Delaware Families Inc. is providing educational materials to encourage healthy and safe relationships.

Sarah Wyshock-Wolfe, a social worker, founded the nonprofit Delaware Families, Inc, which applied for the grant to purchase a computer and projection screen to use in its teen dating violence program. Wyshock-Wolfe said with the new technology, her Lincoln-based group can go beyond showing teens videos and branch out into interactive presentations.

“I feel like teen dating violence is something that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention. We talk so much about adult violence, but the relationships we get into in our youth and the behaviors we accept mold the relationships we enter in for the rest of our lives,” said Wyshock-Wolfe.
She said those who accept violence as teens are more likely to accept violence as adults. Dating decisions of young people are heavily influenced by their parents’ relationships, she said, and the children of parents who have an unhealthy or violent relationship may grow up to think that’s acceptable.

“Statistics show one in three teenagers will experience dating violence,” said Wyshock-Wolfe. “Most of us have one to three best friends. That means if they themselves are not in an unhealthy relationship, they know someone who is,” she said.

In presentations to teenagers, Delaware Families shows teen-produced videos on relationships and helps youth navigate websites. Participants can go online to visit some of the national websites and chat rooms designed for teenagers who are in unhealthy relationships.

Wyshock-Wolfe said the internet provides a venue where teens can anonymously seek help for themselves or their friends. “You can go into a chat room and say, ‘I’m sitting next to my best friend right now. Her boyfriend beat her up, and we don’t know what to do,’ and receive some help,” she said.

Helping teens navigate the websites is more interactive than just handing them a paper with the link, she said.

While Delaware Families wants that information available to teens who need it, the group wants to keep teens from getting into such situations to begin with. “We want them to understand what respect is in a relationship,” she said. The organization relies in workbooks and teen-produced videos to help educate area youth.

Delaware Families hopes to reach 500 teens, between 11 and 18 years old, in Kent and Sussex Counties in the coming year, said Wyshock-Wolfe. The group will do that by reaching out to any organization that serves children of those ages, including schools, churches, Boys and Girls clubs and dance or athletic centers. Others are coordinated through the Young Women’s Christian Association.

Delaware Families educates boys and girls on dating violence and respectful relationships. The grant from the Delaware Community Foundation is one of 32 capital grants the foundation awards annually.

Did you know?

Forty percent of teen girls between 14 and 17 years old know someone who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend, and 20 percent of dating couples report some kind of violence in their relationship.