The Importance of Building Confidence in Young Women & Teens

Steve Adubato goes on-location to The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey to talk with Regina Fitch, Administrative Supervisor, Shani Baraka Women’s Resource Center, about the services available to women who have been victims of dating abuse and the importance of building self-esteem in young women and teenagers.

9/23/19 #2243

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Steve Adubato here. We're at the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. And we are honored to be joined by Regina Fitch, administrative supervisor, the Shani Baraka Women's Resource Center, based in? Newark, New Jersey. Beautiful Brick City. That's right. Newark, New Jersey. You are part of a conversation we're having here at the Healthcare Foundation called Breaking the Cycle, breaking the cycle of teen abuse, teen bullying, but the area I want to focus on with you, you deal with everyday. Dating abuse. Define it. So dating abuse, we're talking about where young people just don't... they're involved in a relationship with someone. "I love this person so much." But that person is somewhat toxic to them. So they may influence them to do things that are outside of their character, outside of their best interest, and just not safe. So let's tell folks. Because the whole point of this series is to provide valuable information, not just about where to go for help, and you'll see the Shani Baraka website up there, a great organization. In fact, our colleague Michael Hill at NJTV News did a feature that talked about your organization and how important it is, but it's also identifying signs? Mm hmm. So someone watching right now a parent, a loved... someone who cares about a teen, what does dating abuse look like? Well there's a lot of different ways to describe that. But from my assessment, whenever there's a young person who... I mean, by the time our kids get to be teenagers, they're very much about their peers. And so everything is, you know, "My friends are doing this. I want to do this for my friends." That's who they're spending most of their time with. But when we start seeing them spending more of their time less with the peer group and just with that one person, and then you start seeing them deviating from their normal behaviors, or the things that you sort of cultivated them to do, just really focused around what that one person wants from them. So that may change their school attendance, because they're off doing something else. It may change in maybe they're no longer associating with friends who you thought was the best friend. And now... Are they isolating? Yeah. So... With that one person? Sorry for interrupting. Just... yeah. Just focusing on that one other person. Not... that's not healthy? It's interesting. There's someone that we know very well, my wife and I were talking about this, where... say there's a young girl and she is connected to a young boy and they believe they're the only ones for each other? Right. And they just..."