One of today's least talked-about issues among teens is domestic violence. I am a member of the Teen Safe Youth Leadership Council, and we're a group of teens who educate our peers about domestic violence.

We're a pretty young organization–in the fall of 2005, Elana Premack, an outreach coordinator for Kol Isha, the Jewish Domestic Violence Program of Jewish Family & Children's Service of Greater Boston, got in touch with a local high school student, Brett Sternfield, regarding her interests in starting a youth-led domestic violence program. Brett, who became very interested in Elana's ideas, asked a couple of his friends to attend a meeting with Elana to talk about a few things, introduce ourselves and see where this initiative may take us. At this meeting, the Teen Safe Youth Leadership Council was officially created.  

First, we discussed our definitions of domestic violence, signs of domestic violence and a few other basics. Next, we sat down together and talked about the things that we believed could be done to educate youth about domestic violence. At our high school in Newton, Mass., we already have a domestic violence group that is working very well so we knew that we needed to look elsewhere.  

We made a list of local places in Eastern Massachusetts where we could promote our beliefs and ideas; at Jewish camps such as Pembroke or Tel Noar, at Jewish Day Schools such as Maimonides and Gann Academy, and even at Hebrew schools and synagogues. After our list was complete, we began brainstorming ideas for a skit, movie, or brochure to present so that we could educate about domestic violence when we visited the potential sites.  

After much time and energy, we produced a wonderful skit. It incorporates a miniature scene of domestic violence, showing that it can happen to anyone, anywhere. The skit also shows what the victim and even others can do in a domestic violence relationship.  

As you can see, we have accomplished a lot together so far this year, but we have a lot more to do. Next year, we plan on fine-tuning the skit and then performing it when we visit our potential sites. We have a flyer explaining the Teen Safe Youth Leadership Council that we plan to distribute as well.

Something that I find really special about our group is that we are all coming together for a great cause. There are many people in this world–especially youth–who do not know anything about domestic violence. The important thing to know is that violence can happen to anyone, anywhere, and we want people to understand how to recognize, respond and resolve these situations in a healthy manner. We feel that it is important to speak about domestic violence issues and to join with others and educate them as well. I have thoroughly enjoyed the work that we have done together this year, and we are all very excited to continue on our journey next year. Remember the 3 R's: recognize, respond, and resolve!