 Good morning everyone. My name is Chavon Porter and I'm the Director for the Office of Violence and Prevention here at the City of Columbia. At this time I would like to welcome each and every one of you that's here today for the City of Columbia's Teen Daily Violence Awareness Month first time. Standing beside me on both sides are our Course Law Enforcement Partners in addition to our Community Partners who all daily work very hard to ensure that we are combating dating and intimate partner violence, promoting healthy relationships, in addition to providing services to equip survivors with the resources and care that they deserve. As a city it's very important for us to ensure that we're bringing awareness to teen dating violence. Not just today, but throughout the year. As we talk about teen dating violence this month, we want to let everybody know that we are aware that it doesn't just affect teenagers. So raising priority, raising awareness, excuse me, is a top priority for all of us. All of us standing up here, all of us here at the City of Columbia, especially our City Council members, our Mayor Daniel Rickerman, our City Council, also our City Manager, Mr. Lisa Wilson. I believe I see for everyone here this morning when I say this community should all come together, because we all care. We care about dating violence. We care about our teenagers. But it's not enough for us to simply stand here and say we're talking about raising awareness. We've got to continuously advocate, educate, and promote healthy relationships. February is the month designated when we celebrate love, right? We'll talk about Valentine's Day or just in general. But February is also the month of awareness of healthy relationships. So this year, the City of Columbia, Office of Armed Crime Prevention, is looking to bring awareness on healthy relationships to highlight Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, not only through this press conference, but also by partnering with community organizations to host community-based events throughout this month of February and throughout the rest of this year. The goal of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month is to share details about the public health crisis, that is violence among teen relationships, but also to promote healthy relationships among our community. When we look at national statistics, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau, a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, shows data that one in three teens in the United States will experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from someone that they're in a relationship with prior to becoming an adult. Those are Saguarian statistics. That's echoed in South Carolina. The Department of Health and Environmental Control, or DHEC, backed those national statistics by also saying one in three relationships in South Carolina are characterized as unhealthy or violent. And that's amongst our teenagers. DHEC also mentioned that those who experience Teen Dating Violence suffer both short and long-term impacts. Lasting impacts. Those damaging impacts are shown through behavioral health issues, including suicide attacks, eating disorders, and drug misuse. So what's most concerning is that we talk about those youth who experience Teen Dating Violence. They will go up to become adults. And those same violent tendencies that we see exhibited whether they are the one who experiences Teen Dating Violence or whether the person that's doing Teen Dating Violence is that they will exhibit it in other places, whether it's school or college, in a family home or in a community setting. And they will either be the person that again will be either the abuser or the offender, or they will be someone who experiences it. So this issue is not just isolated for the city of California. It's not isolated for the state of South Carolina. It's a national issue and that's why we're here today to bring awareness and highlight this troubling public health crisis. So so much of today is about awareness of the moments when we have safety and well-being of our teenagers. In a proclamation signed by President Joe Biden on January 1st, 2024, he called upon everyone to educate themselves and others about Teen Dating Violence so that together, together, we can all stop it. President Biden also asked that we come together to end Teen Dating Violence to ensure that teens feel safe, protected and empowered, to live lives free from violence and full of dignity and respect. So while Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month is highlighted in February, make no mistake. This is a year-long advocacy effort and we are committed to not only keeping this in the forefront, but also making sure that we combat this issue daily as we move forward. From day one on this job, I stood here and I said that together we are going to reduce violent crime in the city of California, not just with one form of violence, but all forms of violence. And as we continue to move along the path, we are working together with community organizations, with community partners, with city departments, with community members and stakeholders to address different forms of violence in our communities. So this morning, we've got some experts in the field and some passionate advocates. So you'll hear from them. They'll talk about what they do on a daily basis to educate, to advocate and to promote healthy relationships. But also they'll talk about how they provide services for survivors. Notice I've not used the word victim one time. Survivors, survivorship. Okay. So thanks to Chief Hobart for being here from the law enforcement perspective. Well, you know that that partnership is so important when it comes to law enforcement and just being able to put to report incidents of violence to law enforcement, our Colombian Police Department. So we will hear starting out with Tierra Mac from Huston & More. Then we will hear from Rebecca Lorak at Pat Lizzie Healing. Then Dr. Juanita McDonough will come and grace us for rediscovering me. Before Leah Whistavix from Cysticare comes up. And last and not least, we will hear from Roger Acton from the South Carolina Victims Assistance Network, who will tell us about the works that they do, but also about the upcoming leap of love events. Following your remarks, I will come back and get closer remarks. Good morning, everybody. My name is Tierra Mac. I am here representing Huston & More. With Huston & More, we support survivors, survivors in need of the hushed topics. The things that are hard to talk about, the things that no one wants to talk about, such as child sexual assault, sexual abuse, incest, domestic violence, and all those horrible things that it's really hard for people to be on their own. With this event of leap of love, I think it's really, really important because a lot of children don't really know what domestic violence looks like. They don't know what the violence looks like. They don't know what toxic relationships are. And with social media and the internet, it's so misconstrued about what healthy should look like and what's necessary for you to be able to have a healthy level relationship. It's not only with your family, but also with your partners. A lot of times it is generational and it's passed down so no one really knows where or how to actually get the support that they need. And that's most importantly, knowing where to get the support, how to get the support. A lot of them don't know that we are here Huston & More is here to support you. Not only do we post retreats in days for the victims and the survivors as well as the families, we also have a holistic wellness center where we give them a safe space to be able to come heal and find some clarity in what it is that they have been experiencing. I believe that a lot of parents also don't know that their children are even sexually active or dealing with victims, with being victims or survivors of domestic violence. They have no idea that it's going on. They hide it from them very well. So this event will really bring a lot to the forefront. Not only will it empower the children, but it also empower the parents and let them know, hey, this is what they look for. This is what you need to look at. This is what we need to be able to see. Are their friends and make sure that they're always on them. They have free time for themselves. Things like that that we really need to really tap into and make sure that we are aware of. Last nine weeks, I really want to say that knowing the resources that are available, everyone up here is a wonderful resource as far as domestic violence, assault for anything that they may experience. So we want them to know that we are here. We are here in all different varieties and we're here to support them in any way that they need. And thank you, anyone who comes out, we definitely look for it as an entire in the parents, the children, the family, as a whole, but it's going to be important. Good morning, everybody. I'm Rebecca Lawrence, the executive director of Pathways Healing, formerly sexual trauma services at the Midlands. So what we do is we're a great crisis center and we provide supportive services for survivors of sexual assault and not just the survivors of their drug points because what we know about violence, whether it's team-dating violence, whether it's sexual violence or whether it's domestic violence, if it impacts the entire community, the entire family unit. So we provide lots of supportive services to those who are struggling. We have a 24-hour crisis hotline where we're available to provide emotional support. We also provide hospital-accompanied for people going to the hospital for forensic medical exam and after sexual assault. So we literally hold people's hands through this process. This is often very difficult, probably the worst time in their lives, we're literally holding hands through that process. But on the flip side of that, we're reactive in that way, but I love that we are proactive because just like Ramon said, we need to educate. We need to make people aware of this subject. We need to talk about it. It's difficult to talk about it. People don't want to talk about it, but we are in the schools every day talking about healthy relationships, what a toxic relationship is, because what we know is that if you grow up in a dysfunctional environment, that's the norm for you. So you don't really understand the dynamics of domestic violence or any type of violence. So we're in schools every day talking about kids and teachers about just the dynamics of violence. We also noted that intimate partner violence is closely related to sexual violence. You know, you're from Lio with Sister Fair, she'll talk a lot about that interpersonal partner violence. There's so much overlap because what we see is people who are in those violent relationships, they're often being sexually assaulted too, and they might not realize it. So it's all about education. It's all about awareness. And it's all about coming together. We said together, together, together, we have to work together to really make progress and to have these conversations. We are honored to be part of this event. Leave a love. We invite everybody to come out. It's going to be great for kids and parents. It's all about coming together as community and doing something positive and ending violence altogether. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm Dr. Linda Root-McDonnell with New Discovery with an initiative and our mission is to engage, educate and improve the lives of survivors and have the body be strong and mental better. Our organization takes a little bit of a different approach because I think you're into supporting survivor's service on neuroscience and behavior of the abuse that they endure. And what you'll find with our organization is that we we actually go out and support faith-based communities, support local community organizations. And we empower the whole I heard the support of the chair that the awareness is not just for the youth. You see our concept and the things that we've done in the past and presently centered on empowering the whole. We have to start with our head and start with our parents. We need to be able to bring those in. And so through our training, especially those that I work with in the faith-based community, we have annual trainings. And so the core factors that we have been able to implement inside of our youth, it helps me in times such as this, such as the escalation of the love that's going to tackle each of them and parents that are in this fuzzy way of trying to figure out, okay, how do I calm that? What better way to do it than to educate yourself? This upcoming event is going to be a way for parents and youth to be able to come out to be to connect with so many different forms of resources within our city, Columbia, as what has been shared, as well as be able to look at what do I do in times such as this? How do I communicate with my youth? What does all of this mean to me? Because what I can tell you is this, over the years, everything that I have learned is that parents just don't know. I was one of them. So if I did not know, that means lots of us did not know. And so this event is going to help each of us. Our organization supports so many different factors of the community, as well as working with each of these organizations. And we are honored to be a part of NCVANN and the City of Columbia, and I look forward to meeting each and every individual that comes out. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Mia Weisebett. I'm the executive director of Sistercare. Our mission at Sistercare is to reduce the impact that occur in some domestic violence in the Netherlands. We provide a great array of services for survivors of domestic violence in their children. We do have a 24-second crisis line, and we have many other services like shelter, housing, legal services, a clinical department. Of course, all these are provided for being charged. We serve around 4,000 survivors and their children each year in the Midlands. We also have a teen prevention program, which I wanted to speak about today on the light of a teen domestic violence awareness month. So to take a picture for you, 42% of South Carolina women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. One in 10 children will witness physical violence in their home. That doesn't account for children back here, unhealthy behaviors, that is one in 10 witness physical violence in their homes. And so what happens is that behavior is normalized, and statistics share that little girls that grow up in parents like that have a greater chance of becoming victimized, and little boys have a greater chance of becoming abusers. And what we're seeing is one in 13 teens, right, one in 13 is experiencing some form of abuse, whether it's physical, emotional, they're experiencing that abuse. So what do we do? We have to work to prevent that intergenerational cycle of violence. And that's why the programs that we have in schools are the faith-based communities, and the youth civic groups are so important. We need to get to these teens, they need to hear what healthy relationships look like. A lot of times when behavior is normalized, they just don't matter. And sometimes we hear, I just want to be loved. I want to be loved. I don't feel bad in my room. And we need to teach them that love is respect. Love is not unhealthy, it's not violent. Texting your girlfriend or boyfriend 876 times a day is not love. Putting a GPS tracking device on your girlfriend or boyfriend's father is not love. Showing them that two in the morning on their front steps to maybe to know if their home is not love. And so it takes all of us working together as a community to educate our teens and our parents about what healthy relationships look like. And so sister care, we've served around 2,500 teens with our prevention program in 2023. That seems like a big number, but it's not. We can't do it alone. None of us can do it alone. And so we have to work together and have to work with the city to make sure that we make a safer and healthier environment for our teens. I have a three-year-old daughter. I'm doing this for her. I'm doing this for your children and grandchildren and for the future. And so I'm very excited for the Leap of Love event for all of us to come together as a community to show what it means to support our teens to know that they're not alone, that they have so many resources and so many people who care, even if they don't always feel that way. So I hope to see everybody at the Leap of Love event tomorrow. That's going to be Thursday. Oh, excuse me. It's Wednesday. On Thursday, 5.30, it's going to be an exceptional event and I'm excited to spread the word about healthy relationships. Good morning. You've had a lot of good mornings and we're excited to be here. I'm Roger Ackman with the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network. My heart has grown many times with this opportunity to work together on this. I represent also my executive director, Laura Hudson, and Jessica Goodwin, who is my coastal me, as she says, working with faith-based victim service work. A couple key comments about South Carolina Victim Assistance Network. We want to be the voice for crime victims, victims and survivors. We want to be there also for those who serve them, our advocates. We are that go-to network for them and in fact it's interesting just to give you a perspective. My one area is called faith-based victim service area, but we have also financial relief for victim program, the crime victim information service system, our legal assistance is out there, forensic nurse exam, which you probably heard about, the SAFE program, and then of course is the faith-based strategy. It's a collective effort. We cover, as proven, all different aspects of crime impacting our community, and it's exciting to tell you that since Ronald Reagan saw a priority for compensation for crime victims, and now in the 1980s we had opportunity to establish ourselves out of a bill of rights for crime victims. Is that unimpressive? To have a bill of rights for crime victims of South Carolina is very distinctive in our country, and we have been established to help make sure those bill of rights are continually followed. And in the work now with this faith-based strategy, we've been able to come alongside houses of worship, all faiths, very humbling in all aspects of our faith support, and out of this project of working with various areas, even in our faith base of working with elder abuse, human trafficking, a couple years ago we saw a strategy for teen dating violence that really needed to be addressed, and as Leah just noted, I also come out of a heart for two children now who are in their 20s, two daughters who I wanted to make sure, again, they're a safe element, but what is that safe element? How do we do this? Just to let you know, there's a whole bunch of people working every day on this. So this is, again, not just this one month of awareness which allows us to put on yes, orange. Some Clemson people are very happy, all my game cocks are stressing to have to wear orange, but at least one night they told me they're going to put on some orange for me on Thursday, but this priority is something that really meshes well. In fact, they have been working hard, and I look at this Thursday night coming up as a way to celebrate all this good work in our community. A chance for us, as everyone has noted, parents and high school teens to come together here and see, and believe it or not, there will be someone who will come in there for the first time and learn about this issue, and we don't want to scare them because I know the statistics say like one in three teens all experience physical, sexual and emotional abuse from someone they've had in a relationship before they become an adult. And shoot, down the road, I'm hoping we get to work with campus students and colleges, because I didn't realize this, but 43% of our U.S. college women report experiencing violent or abusive dating behaviors. We're behind, no matter how much we work hard, but we work smarter working together, and that's what's changing. So this event on Thursday night is going to start at 5.30, from 5.30 to 9.30, it's going to be at Brooklyn Baptist Church. I want to thank, I definitely want to thank the folks from the Vibe Youth Ministry and Young Adult Ministry. Carmen and Dallas, they are Deacon and Deaconess there. They have provided complete coverage for us to use the conference center there, and it is fantastic for them to give us that opportunity and not have to worry about that cost, and give us this beautiful facility at the conference center from Brooklyn Baptist Church. Thank you, thank you so much. And again, each one of these members here have been working hard on all the aspects of giveaways. We're going to have giveaways throughout the night. They'll get a chance to go through an exhibit area from 5.30 to 6.30, meet all the folks here. In fact, I got to read this list, and I appreciate your listening too. But we have multiple partners. Our partners include Hush and Amore, they're here, Hardy Hands Foundation, Pathways of Healing, Sister Care, The Hive, Skid Vasa, City of Columbia Mayor's Office. Thank you, thank you, thank you. City of Columbia Commission on Minority Affairs, Misconception, Young Life, Interfaith, Partners of South Carolina, Rich and County Sheriff's Office, and the Columbia Police Department. And again, there's probably a couple of others I'm not remembering, but it is amazing when you start to say there's a need, can you help? And I feel like the Huckberry moment where all these folks want to come on site and do something to make a difference. I feel like there's this unique opportunity that the city gets to see us working together, but I gotta let you know, it's always under, you don't know this, but we're already always working together. That's what's so joyful about this day is we're getting to put a spotlight on some amazing people who have a heart for you. Again, this event will finish up at 9.30. We're going to have two parts I want to emphasize, and I'll finish up with this. The youth will actually have a time using an applied drama to experience the understanding of what this is about Team 8 miles. We have Rosin Stover from the Lee Fairfield-Chelvin's Absence Center who has a specialist in this. We also are going to have a panel for the parents that night at the same time for about an hour and a half both, and they're going to get a chance to get to go through and understand better the crisis and also the hope. We don't ever want to just give crisis, we always want to give hope. And that's another part about this great work. So we'll enjoy the night. A good fun night. We've got a DJ going to be there in the beginning. I can't wait. I hope you as a family, if you're looking at this and listening to this story, take the time to send your high school team and you as a parent please come. This is a message that you need to hear. It gives you hope. This isn't just a stressful conversation, this is a very helpful time together. And thank you team. There's so much work behind this and keep your keep us in our thoughts and prayers as we move forward to this night and also to this year for celebrating and caring for teens. Wow. When we talk about community partnerships, this is what it's all about. Again, we consistently do this work every day. And sometimes it goes unnoticed. But to come together to spotlight all of the efforts from all of these agencies, from everyone that's standing up there is representing a different agency. A different piece of the puzzle. This is what it's all about. And we're doing it to make our communities better. So behind me is the flyer for the leap of love event. And it'll be Thursday. All right. So I want to thank personally everybody that's out here. Thank y'all for the collaborations. Thank you everybody that's here this morning. And for the community that's representing. Again, Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month is an opportunity for us to come together to at no other time say in February we are going to continue to raise to raise awareness. But as we know here in the city of Columbia, we will continue to raise awareness every day. Every day. Not only raising awareness, but advocating for teenagers, for their families, for peers, and for everybody in the community. So I'll say this, although Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month ends on February 29th the work that's being done will not end on February 29th. We're already working together to collaborate on some other events outside of February. Some other events throughout the year throughout the summer when our young people out of school, but also working with those teenagers, but also their parents. So parents as well too. Young adults and adults. So for those who may see the press conference later or see this, click on it. We want you to know and understand that there are caring folks who are here. There are organizations that are here. There are resources out there that are here and available for you. You don't have to suffer in silence. So aside from the organizations that are here today, if you or someone that you know is involved in any type of violence, whether it's dating violence or any other type of violence, please immediately seek out. You can call 911, report it for local law enforcement. Again, you have to meet your partners that appear that you can get in contact with, whether it's Hush No More, whether it's sister care, whether it's tackling the healing needs of me. They're all accessible. Okay. You can go to the Columbia Police Department's website for a list of resources through their victim services. There are additional resources on the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control or DVAC. They still call it that. I can explain what. Well, I'm so sure that website has resources as well. There are resources out there to help, to educate. And we will always all be here to advocate. So again, in an effort to continue to raise the bar higher, because that's our goal here at City of Columbia, to continue to raise the bar. We want to make sure that we not only have these type of press conferences and awareness events, but we continue to build on the programming, the activities, and working with our community partners to educate, advocate, and promote healthy, not toxic, not unhealthy, healthy relationships. We owe it to our communities, and we definitely owe it to our children who are our future. So again, thanks to each of you for taking the time for being here this morning, and I look forward to seeing each of you at the Leap of Love Healthy Relationships event on Thursday, February 15th, starting at 5.30 at the Brooklyn Baptist Conference Center. All right. The details are behind me. You can find on the City of Columbia's website. Again, thank you all for coming out.