Ahora Si: Changing Lives News Feature

Creating Healthy Relationships By Liliana Valenzuela       ¡ahora si! 

One in three adolescents in the U.S. are victims of physical, sexual, emotional or verbal abuse from their partner, according to a Dating Violence Hotline.

That is something the student Nicole Barrera and 27 other members of The Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble is seeking to remedy through theater plays that have a direct and fun message for students from ages 11 to 14, to make them aware of this problem before it happens to them in real life.

This diverse theater group began in 2003 under the auspices of Safe Place, its main partner, and Theater Action Project, two nonprofit organizations that operate in Austin and at national levels to eliminate domestic and sexual violence.

The theater program is funded mainly from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and  support from the Start Strong coalition, and will take their message to more than 3,000 students at the secondary schools Webb, Burnett and Mendez, where the student population is predominantly Hispanic, beginning this February, which is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. Read the full story! Read the original article en espanol.