Loveisrespect is looking for new members to join our National Youth Advisory Board (NYAB)! So your first question probably is: what is the board? The NYAB consists of individuals between 12-24 years old that work together to stop teen dating abuse. Members meet over the phone to learn about activism, discuss projects they’re doing in their community and plan events. They are all spreading the word about teen dating violence and how to stop it.

If you work to stop violence in your school or society, the NYAB is a place for you! Come connect and work with like-minded people nationwide — apply online.

Requirements include attending an annual conference and monthly conference calls. In addition, NYAB members are expected to complete at least 20 community-service hours a year on preventing dating abuse. You can organize your own event, lead the ones the board comes up with or participate with a local group addressing the issue. In addition, there are also action items after the monthly calls.

But don’t take our word for it. Here are some quotes from current NYAB leadership:

Being on the NYAB has been such an amazing experience. Since we have started this board, we have grown and learned so much. Being from Wyoming, there wasn’t much involvement with this issue around here and being on the NYAB has allowed me to connect with others that are doing the same thing. I have also learned a lot of information, different things to do in my community and have had the chance to represent Loveisrespect. Not only does the NYAB strive to stop such a big issue, but you also get to meet new people and work with people from everywhere. It is a cool experience working with other people from across the country and seeing how many people that it can reach. I have found being on the NYAB very helpful for me to expand and keep working against teen dating abuse.

-Haylee Reay, NYAB Advocacy Committee Co-lead & Executive Committee Member

Being a Youth Advisory Board Member for Loveisrespect has given me the great resource of the website to introduce through my advocacy work in my own community, but even more than that it has given me connection with a couple dozen other activists who are actively working toward a world free of dating violence. I have had an amazing experience in my past year as a board member and I cannot wait to see the amazing things we will do in the next year and the years to come.

-Melissa Siegel, NYAB Chair, Advocacy Committee Co-lead & Executive Committee Member

The Board is a place for young people with the drive to catalyze positive change. If you have been touched by domestic violence at any point in your life and have the passion to do the work, the Board will give you the opportunity and the resources to create widespread positive change. I went from local community outreach to national influence when I got involved with the Board. You meet incredible individuals each of whom work tirelessly as advocates in their hometowns. They at first are strangers, but you find the members are all united behind the same cause and same desire to be a voice for victims who feel silenced. Our bond will only strengthen when we meet for our next annual conference. We are all thrilled to welcome new voices to the Board. I started at age sixteen and now, almost two years later, I co-lead the Interactive Committee. Here you are only limited by the degree of your ambition to be involved.

-Nicole DeSario, NYAB Interactive Committee Co-lead & Executive Committee Member

cescobar help loveisrespect

Sign the petition to tell Apple to remove the app that makes a game out of dating abuse.

In The Boyfriend Trainer, you create the “ideal” man by hitting, slapping or even strangling him when he does something “wrong.” According to the game, punishable mistakes include dropping a shirt on the ground or checking out another girl.

In the chatter online (on Jezebel and Buzzfeed), people are talking about what would happen if the tables were turned and this game were about a guy ‘training’ his girlfriend by hitting or strangling her. The fact is though, it doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female, gay or straight, when someone slaps, hits or strangles their partner, it’s abuse.

We don’t need to imagine the game from another perspective — physical violence is abuse and it’s always unacceptable.

There are arguments in healthy relationships and partners do things like drop a shirt on the floor. But if you want to resolve these issues, try to communicate — hurting your partner will not “train” them to be perfect. The route to happy, healthy relationships is through equality and respect, not power and control.

Take a stand, sign the petition and tell Apple that abuse is not a game!

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The loveisrespect National Youth Advisory Board (NYAB) is hosting Respect Week to get YOU involved in this February’s Teen Dating Violence (DV) Awareness Prevention Month. Don’t miss the chance to part of a million-strong movement:

Wear Orange February 11

Wear something (shirts, nail polish, jewelry, shoes, ribbons, hair ties, braces or anything else you can think of) orange in honor of teenDVmonth. And don’t just wear it, talk about it! Tell everyone why you are wearing orange. Try saying something like: “I’m wearing orange today to promote respect and healthy relationships!”

Have an orange outfit in mind? Next, help us spread the word by telling everyone and posting pictures of you and your friends wearing orange on facebook.com/loveisrespect and @loveisrespect.

National Announcement February 14

What better way to say Happy Valentine’s Day than helping your entire school learn about healthy relationships? On February 14, you can sign up to read the 3rd Annual National Announcement to Promote Healthy Relationships over your school’s intercom or throughout the day before each of your classes.

Host a Respect Week Event

Take the lead on educating your community by hosting your own event. The NYAB prepared tip sheets on staffing an info table and organizing a candlelight vigil to get you started.

Ready to take action? Post your event on the official website for the month teendvmonth.org and tweet us @loveisrespect with hashtag #RespectWeek.

cescobar events