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Domestic Violence Network Hosts First Youth Coordinated Community Response Team Meeting

By: Lindsay Stawick, Director of Programs, DVN

On November 27, DVN hosted the first Youth Coordinated Community Response (YCCR) team meeting at the George Washington Community High School Future Center. Indianapolis has needed this coordinated effort focused on the experiences of young people for a long time.  This project was jump started when The Julian Center, DVN, Indianapolis Public Schools, Center for Victim and Human Rights, Indiana Youth Group, Jewish Community Center, IMPD, and MCPO received the Consolidated Youth grant through the Office of Violence Against Women, to increase prevention and intervention efforts in Marion County.  

YCCR is a multifaceted, coordinated effort created to address issues of dating violence, sexual violence, and stalking among youth in Marion County. This multidisciplinary team of professionals and citizens will gather regularly to examine the response of our community to young victims and perpetrators of these incidents.This team engages key stakeholders from the community, including educators, law enforcement, mental health providers, non profit organizations and other people and organizations who serve youth. This team would not be complete without young people involved. We are grateful to the Future Center student ambassadors for joining us at our first meeting, and we look forward to working alongside them to create impactful and sustainable change.  

It is important that we intentionally and actively listen to the voices of the very people experiencing these issues and the people that will hopefully benefit from the work of this team. For so long it has been an US and THEM situation when working to solve problems, but that will not happen with this team. We are ONE team working towards cultural change together. No voice is more important than another.

It’s important to note that no discussion of improving the status of gender based violence can be had without addressing and analyzing health and social inequities young people face within the context of the systems and policies that reinforce those inequities. This team is designed to dig deep and to disrupt systems.  We want young people five, 10 and 15 years from now to feel and experience the effects of our work.

If you would like to learn more about the team or become involved, please email me at: lhill@dvnconnectorg.