S.A.D.E.'s Hope
Make Things Happen.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STATISTICS IN GEORGIA
-
37.4% of Georgia women and 30.4% of Georgia men experience intimate partner physical violence, sexual violence and/or stalking in their lifetimes.
-
In 2019, Georgia domestic violence programs answered 52,282 crisis calls.
-
Georgia domestic violence shelters provided shelter to 7,214 victims of domestic violence in FY 2019. An additional 4,176 were turned away due to lack of bed space.
-
In 2017, there were 149 domestic violence-related fatalities. 70% of those involved firearms.
-
In 2017, Georgia had the 10th highest rate in the US of women murdered by men.
- National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
What is Teen Dating Violence?
Teen dating violence (TDV) is a type of intimate partner violence. It occurs between two people in a close relationship. TDV includes four types of behavior:
Physical violence is when a person hurts or tries to hut a partner by hitting, kicking or using another type of physical force.
Sexual violence is forcing or attempting to force a partner to take part in a sex act, sexual touching, or a non-physical sexual event (e.g., sexting) when the partner does not or cannot consent.
Psychological aggression is the use of verbal and non-verbal communication with the intent to harm another person mentally or emotionally and/or exert control over another person.
Stalking is a pattern of repeated, unwanted attention and contact by a partner that causes fear or concern for one’s own safety or the safety of someone close to the victim.
Dating violence can take place in person or electronically, such as repeated texting or posting sexual pictures of a partner online without consent. Unhealthy relationships can start early and last a lifetime. Teens often think some behaviors, like teasing and name-calling, are a “normal” part of the relationship – but these behaviors can become abusive and develop into serious forms of violence. However, many teens do not report unhealthy behaviors because they are afraid to tell family and friends or because they are unable to identify abuse.
Standing Against Domestic Violence Everyday (S.A.D.E.’s Hope) is a teen dating abuse and domestic violence organization providing an open and related platform for teenagers, younger millennials, and upcoming generations. S.A.D.E.’s Hope was founded on the vision and belief that every teen has the right to be safe, empowered and free from violence and the fear of violence. Our goal is to bring awareness and provide assistance to teens and millennial victims by providing referrals to shelters, job-training, legal advocacy, referrals to counseling, financial resources, and establishing preventive measures, amongst other things. The specific community service that we serve is elementary, middle and high school students between the ages of 10 and 18. Many of our mentees have been victims of abuse either emotionally or physically or have witnessed it, either way these adverse childhood experiences can be devastating to a teen. The burden of teen dating violence is not shared equally across all groups – teenage sexual minority groups are disproportionately affected by all forms of violence, and some racial/ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by many types of teen dating violence.
In an effort to help prevent teen dating violence, we established the Love Honor Respect (“LHR”) Youth Mentoring Program. The program's mission is to create positive outcomes for young teens who are victims/survivors of teen dating violence or have witnessed domestic violence - by leveraging relationships between education, creativity and service. Our program provides teenagers a pathway to love, honor and respect themselves first, promoting healthy peer to peer relationships and developing a community of teenagers who are prepared to be positive change agents in their communities and the world. The focus of this program is to educate and inform on the effects of teen dating verbal and physical abuse, and cyberbullying, all in an effort to prevent same.
