County Launches Public Education Campign Regarding Relationship Violence

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Contact: Sue Tucker or Bonnie Ayers, 240-777-6530
For Immediate Release: February 14, 2001

County Launches Public Education
Campaign Regarding Relationship Violence

The Montgomery County Commission for Women today announced the kickoff of a public education campaign aimed at teenage girls and their parents to bring attention to the dangers and prevalence of relationship violence and provide prevention strategies. The campaign was initiated to address the fact that crime data for Montgomery County indicates that more than 78 percent of all reported rape victims and 80 percent of all female murder victims in the County either knew or were related to their attackers.

The components of the campaign include a brochure directed at parents called "Talk to Your Daughter About Violence;" posters directed at young girls about relationship violence and posters warning about the connection between alcohol and relationship violence. Materials are printed in both English and Spanish. Another important part of this campaign includes a letter that has been sent to all OB/GYNs in the County, urging them to screen their patients for possible domestic or sexual violence and a screening tool for doctors to use in assessing patients for both domestic and sexual violence.

Other officials participating in the announcement were County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, County Councilmember Phil Andrews, Police Captain Timothy Delaney, Commission for Women President Anne Sanderoff-Walker, and Victim Assistance and Sexual Assault Program Director Nadja Cabello.

"With the cooperation and resources of several different agencies working together, we are able to reach out to our youth and their families through this campaign," said Duncan. "Our children depend on us to protect them and keep them out of harm's way, and by calling attention to this issue we hope to prevent a needless tragedy."

"One of the terrible consequences of relationship violence is that it perpetuates a culture of violence," said Councilmember Phil Andrews, who chairs the Council's Public Safety Committee. "That's because children who witness those kinds of acts often become abusers themselves later in life."

The posters and brochures will be made available to all Montgomery County middle and high schools to be distributed through guidance offices and health rooms as well as through Family Life instructors and PTAs. Other outlets for the material will be through Recreation Department community centers; County libraries; regional services centers; all three campuses of Montgomery College through the Women's Studies Department; service providers; women's organizations; and OB/GYN offices in Montgomery County.

"We chose Valentine's Day to launch this initiative because we are talking about relationships that begin as love but end in violence," said Sanderoff-Walker. "It is important that we talk to girls and teach them how to select healthy relationships, and how to recognize the signs of danger in a potential partner."

The brochures, in both English and Spanish, are posted on the Commission for Women's website at www.co.mo.md.us/cfw with links to the related service providers' website.

For more information, call the Commission for Women at 301-279-8301.

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