Jana's Campaign
Each fall semester, Jana’s Campaign works with the freshman class at Hays High School to provide Bystander Intervention Trainings. These trainings teach students how to safely, immediately and effectively intervene when they believe unhealthy or violent relationship behaviors are occurring.
After providing Bystander Intervention Trainings to freshmen in September, on Thursday, Oct. 15, Jana’s Campaign was invited back to Hays High for a follow up session to further discuss the continuum of violence, recognizing ‘red flags’ or warning signs of unhealthy relationships, and to review the bystander intervention strategies. Select upperclassmen, nominated by school faculty as outstanding leaders, assisted in facilitating conversations about the information students learned at the September trainings, and to discuss possible answers to questions raised on the post-training surveys Jana’s Campaign administered at the initial training.
Nationally, one in three adolescents report being hit, slapped, stalked, sexually assaulted or emotionally abused by a dating partner (CDC, 2019). This prevention education program, along with other evidence-based programs Jana’s Campaign provides, helps prepare students to take the lead on creating a culture of strong respect and to promote healthy relationship behaviors.
“Ongoing conversations about the issue of teen dating violence are crucial to ending all forms of gender-based violence. National domestic violence awareness month is observed in October, but these issues won’t disappear at the end of the month. It is necessary to have conversations about preventing violence year- round,” stated Derek Ingalls, Education & Prevention Specialist at Jana’s Campaign.
The ultimate goal of Jana’s Campaign’s programs is to stop violence before it starts. In Ellis County Jana’s Campaign has worked with 12,687 students, from 9 schools – Kindergarten through college. Beyond Ellis County, Jana’s Campaign has impacted over 72,500 middle and high school students across 9 states, nearly 420 colleges and universities across 43 states, and thousands of citizens since 2013.
To learn more about Jana’s Campaign, and their violence prevention education programs, visit www.janascampaign.org.