Public Policy & Washington, DC Office
Internships Avaiable!We are currently accepting applications for spring 2006 internships. |
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DC Youth Voices Partcipant |
Outreach to Sexual Minority YouthBreak the Cycle is working with local service providers to develop Under a Family Violence Prevention and Services grant from the DC Department of |
Break the Cycle staff and interns
Making a Difference in DC
Break the Cycle opened our Washington, DC office in January 2004
to address the critical need of services for DC youth. Since then,
we have:
- reached more than 7,000 DC teens with our preventive education
and outreach - assisted more than 210 youth to achieve safe, healthy
lives through legal services, referrals and advice - mobilized more than 130 youth peer leaders, interns, former clients
and volunteers who contributed over 4,600 hours to Break the Cycle - trained more than 5,700 teachers, police, medical personnel and other
first-responders, who regularly come into contact with teen dating
violence victims.
Did you Know?
Dating violence is more prevalent in Washington, DC than New York, Los
Angeles, Philadelphia and San Diego. According to Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, DC has the highest rate of teen dating violence in the
country.
DC ranks second in the country in percentage of high school students
experiencing forced sex.
In 2005, the Metropolitan Police Department received
over 27,000 domestic-related crime calls – one every 19 minutes; an increase
of 22% over the past three years. In fact, domestic-related calls accounted
for 65% of all interpersonal crime calls to MPD in 2005 and the DC Superior
Court heard over 8,000 domestic violence cases, an increase of 3.7% over the
previous year.
Education in Juvenile Detention
Working the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, we have developed a
violence prevention curriculum to be taught to adolescent girls in the juvenile
detention facility at Mt. Olivet. Recognizing the extraordinarily high rates of
domestic and sexual abuse that girls in the juvenile justice system have
experienced, we see this as a unique population of girls who are struggling to
change their lives from ones of violence and abuse to a healthy future. We began
teaching our targeted curriculum at Mt. Olivet in October, 2006 and look forward
to bringing our prevention message to this highly at-risk group over the coming
year.
Public Policy
Director Juley Fulcher chairs the Children & Youth Subcommittee of the National
Task Force to End Sexual & Domestic Violence. This committee is working with
Congress and the current Administration to ensure effective implementation of the
new youth-focused programming under the Violence Against Women Act of 2005.
Locally, we are working with other domestic violence agencies and youth service
providers to support proposed changes to the DC Intrafamily Offenses Statute in
order to provide adequate relief for teen
domestic violence victims in the District.
- 1Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, “Youth Risk Behavior
Surveillance-United States, 2003,” 53 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,
SS-2 (May 21, 2004) at 40, available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/SS/SS5302.pdf. The CDC study does
not attempt to explain the prevalence of the targeted risk behaviors in the
jurisdiction surveyed. - 2 Centers
for Disease Control, 2004. “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance-United
States, 2003,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Surveillance Summaries,
May 21, 2004 / 53 (SS02); 1-96.