Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. In honor of the month, and of the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act and the establishment of the Office on Violence Against Women as part of the Department of Justice, DOJ had a blogger call last week.
This was a first for the DOJ, and definitely indicative of the new outreach strategies of this administration. I’m entirely sure who was on the call, but some of my favorite feminist bloggers asked questions.
The call focused on the efforts of OVW and DOJ to combat Teen Dating Violence. They have an emphasis on online harassment and specifically mentioned “sexting” and cell-phone based harassment.
They also mentioned that Obama’s budget for 2011 includes a “29% increase in funds specifically targeted to address sexual assault and violence against women.”
They are running this website, Love is Respect, as part of the campaign to combat Teen Dating Violence.