We did it! It feels so great to win at Charlotte and share it with family and friends. My 22 team is awesome. Thank you for all of your support each week. We are all thankful to have it.

This Week’s Cause: Domestic Violence

We are continuing our support in October of non-profits working to raise awareness about domestic violence. The last blog post discussed how we define what domestic violence is and listed resources available to help someone experiencing abuse. For this post, I would like to focus on ways to prevent domestic violence – mainly through education.

According to Violence Against Women (VAWnet.org), research shows if you are in an abusive or unhealthy relationship in middle or high school, those relationship habits carry on into adulthood. Prevention programs in the early years can help stop these habits from being normal in adult years. It makes sense – if you are young and don’t understand what an abusive relationship is, you may think what you are experiencing is the norm and how relationship work.

In-school educational programs seem to be a great way to reach a large amount of kids.

Programs like “The Outrage” developed by SAFEHOME KS (our non-profit partner you will learn about later in the blog) have created an effective approach with teens. They take a group of young high school age actors and tour schools preforming skits that teach about teen dating violence. After the performance, the group takes questions to make sure the audience understands what they have learned about. You can check out clips from performances at the link below.

http://www.safehome-ks.org/education-prevention/outrage/

We know a lot of what any child learns happens at school. If the statistic that 1 in 5 teenagers will experience physical or sexual abused by a dating partner is accurate, more programs like this are clearly needed.

This Week’s Joey Logano Foundation Chasing Second Chances Partner

This week’s charity partner is SAFEHOME. SAFEHOME’s mission is to break the cycle of domestic violence and partner abuse for victims and the children by providing shelter, advocacy, counseling, and prevention education in our community.

This organization provides a healing atmosphere where survivors of domestic violence can gain inner strength, build self-esteem, explore options, and establish a life free of violence. Through SAFEHOME’s shelter and community services, approximately 7,500 individuals each year receive the support they need to lead healthy, independent lives.

Education and prevention are critical to changing the public’s understanding of this issue. SAFEHOME has multiple national award-winning educational programs we are proud to support through the Chasing Second Chances platform.