Prevention Work With Teens

Choose Respect

Choose Respect is an initiative of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help adolescents form healthy relationships to prevent dating abuse before it starts. This national effort is designed to motivate adolescents to challenge harmful beliefs about dating abuse and take steps to form respectful relationships.

The Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and more than 21 member programs partnered to launch the Choose Respect Initiative statewide from August - October of 2006. The initiative included community prevention events for youth and their parents, radio PSAs, and a launch game night with the Minnesota Lynx, sponsored by Verizon Wireless and the Minnesota Lynx.

In February 2007, middle and high school-aged youth gathered in St. Paul for the Choose Respect Teen Leadership Summit/Girls Rock! The Capitol, co-sponsored by the Minnesota Women's Consortium and generously funded by Verizon Wireless and the Minnesota Lynx. This unique event helped youth from all over Minnesota build their leadership skills to end dating violence and sexual assault.

Click here to check out the Choose Respect website. It includes handouts, a downloadable educational video, a Community Action Kit, screensavers, buddy icons, and an educational game where youth can create their own music videos.

Minnesota Choose Respect Partners and Collaborations:

  • Advocates Against Domestic Abuse, Aitkin
  • Advocates for Family Peace, Grand Rapids
  • Alexandra House, Blaine
  • Chrysalis Center for Women, Minneapolis
  • Crime Victim Services, Inc., New Ulm
  • Dabinoo'Igan, Duluth
  • DOVE Program, White Earth Reservation
  • Girl Scout Land of Lakes Council, Bemidji
  • Home Free, Plymouth
  • HOPE Center, Faribault
  • Houston County Women's Resources, Hokah
  • Lakes Crisis Center, Detroit Lakes
  • Mahnomen County Sheriff's Victim-Witness Service, Mahnomen
  • Migrant Health Service, Crookston
  • Norman County Victim Assistance Program, Ada
  • Northwoods Coalition for Battered Women, Bemidji
  • Range Women's Advocates, Virginia
  • Rape and Abuse Crisis Center of Fargo-Moorhead, Moorhead
  • Sexual Assault Program of Beltrami, Cass, and Hubbard Counties, Bemidji
  • Sexual Assault Program of Northern St. Louis County, Virginia
  • Shelter House, Willmar
  • Someplace Safe, Fergus Falls
  • Southwest Crisis Center, Worthington
  • Victim Intervention and Recovery Program, Cottage Grove
  • Women's Network of the Red River Valley, Moorhead

For more information about the Minnesota Choose Respect Initiative, please call Deb Foster at the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, 651-646-6177, ext. 13.