CALDWELL, Idaho — "I do hereby proclaim February 2025 Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month," said Caldwell Mayor Jarom Wagner.
Each year, 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys experience physical or sexual violence in their intimate relationships.
To kick off February, Mayor Wagner and Kim Dugan with Advocates Against Family Violence are raising awareness about what they describe as an ongoing pattern of violence.
"It starts when they are so very young, and so for us to get this education into the community, to let people know there are resources and services here to help support those teens in learning different patterns of behavior to break out of that cycle, it's very exciting and much needed in our community," said Kim Dugan, executive director of Advocates Against Family Violence.
This past year, the youth outreach program served just under 7,000 youth, bringing the total impact to more than 60,000 youth since the program began 16 years ago.
"We work to eliminate violence. How are we going to do that and truly make an impact? We're going to start teaching how to have healthy relationships," Dugan said.
She added that while the program has reached many students in schools, they also work to teach parents.
"We are really hoping to reach not just the youth, but also the parents, because we know one in three people will, at some point in their life, experience domestic abuse or sexual assault. Like I said before, it's a learned pattern of behavior," Dugan said.
For Mayor Wagner, the proclamation is just the beginning of the work that still needs to be done.
"There are so many parents who don't realize what's going on in their child's life. A lot of this happens at that middle school age, so we want to make sure that people are aware of it. Just because you don't hear about it or see it doesn't mean it's not happening in your child's life," Wagner said.
Now that February has been proclaimed Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, they hope to continue working together to help more kids in need.
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