Safety Planning for Youth: How Can I Be Safe in My Abusive Relationship?
A safety plan is a set of actions that can help lower your risk of being hurt by your partner in an abusive relationship. It includes information specific to you and your life that can increase your safety at school, home, and other places that you go daily.
Providing Support to a Vulnerable Population
Many of us may have a loved one in our lives who is transgender – even if we don’t know it. Transgender people are often misunderstood and treated poorly. Up to date statewide and national data is lacking, but the most recent documentation shows that a disproportionate number of vulnerable trans female youth are exploited, trafficked, abused, and murdered. A 2021 study done by the Boston-based Judge Baker Children’s Center found that about a quarter of transgender students in Massachusetts, mainly girls, report having been raped or abused while dating.
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Recent Articles
BOOK REVIEW: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Summary Eleanor is a 15-year-old girl who recently moved back in with her mother, stepfather Ritchie, and 4 younger siblings after having been kicked out by her stepfather for a year. Her father is distant, emotionally negligent, and unavailable. Her mother is in a domestic violence relationship with Ritchie, which is primarily directed at her mom though also at the children, especially Eleanor. Ritchie [...]
BOOK REVIEW: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Summary After her 18-year-old sister runs away to escape the pressure of living out their parents' visions of her future, 16-year-ols Caitlin begins acting out. Behaving both in ways to fill and reject the expectations left behind by the absence of her sister, she becomes a cheerleader and starts dating a wealthy drug dealing 5th year senior named Rogerson. Well after it is revealed [...]
BOOK REVIEW: Sparrow by Mary Cecilia Jackson
Summary Sparrow and Lucas are juniors in high school, best friends, and the lead ballerinas at a youth ballet conservatory. Sparrow experiences a near-death dating violence incident at the hand of a powerful upper-class peer around the same time that Lucas’ father abruptly passes away from cancer. Their friends, family, and community struggle to support these teens as they process these intense traumas. Everyone [...]
BOOK REVIEW: What Kind of Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel
Summary Alyssa Sheinmel Maya goes to the principal at her private school with a black eye and tells her principal that their track star and all-around Good Guy of campus hit her. The news spreads fast across campus as different perspectives are pulled to the readers’ attention. Masterfully touching on a variety of issues including addiction, self, harm, recovering from abuse, [...]
Safety Planning for Youth: How Can I Be Safe in My Abusive Relationship?
A safety plan is a set of actions that can help lower your risk of being hurt by your partner in an abusive relationship. It includes information specific to you and your life that can increase your safety at school, home, and other places that you go daily. Why do I need a safety plan? Everyone deserves a relationship [...]
Good Boundaries Help Create Healthy Relationships
What are boundaries and why are they so important? Boundaries are lines that we draw that tell ourselves and others what we are okay and not okay with, in a relationship. Setting boundaries with your dating partner will help ensure that everyone is safe and encourage a healthy relationship. via GIPHY Boundaries vary and not everyone will [...]
Survivor Story – The Scars That Don’t Show
The following is the anonymous, personal story shared by a survivor of childhood emotional abuse and the response from one of HCWC’s Children’s Counselors. HCWC currently employs 8 professional counselors that specialize in working with children and teens across our programs. "Having a narcissistic parent can be very rough; especially when you don’t know how to explain your [...]
Helping Children Process Trauma
As a society we are increasingly exposed to tragic and traumatic events, and unfortunately our children often suffer as a result. Trauma comes in many shapes and sizes. Witnessing violence or an accident. Experiencing violence or abuse. Encountering a man-made or natural disaster. These are all examples of trauma. If you are aware your child has been a part of any of these [...]
Prevent Sexual Violence – Start Talking to Youth About Media Literacy
Sexual Assault Awareness month is an opportunity to shine a light on the importance of preventing sexual violence. Conversations with youth about healthy relationships and consent are imperative to preventing sexual violence and need to happen well before they’re thinking about sex. Whether they find it on their own or are shown by a friend, most young people’s first encounter [...]
Demystifying Forensic Exams
Sexual Assault Forensic Exams (SAFEs), sometimes called “rape kits”, are exams on survivors of sexual violence conducted by a specially trained nurse or physician, usually to gather any evidence of the crime that might be present. Not every assault is going to have physical evidence present, but there are other very important benefits to have a SAFE, whether it occurred less than five [...]
It Takes a Village: The Importance of a Coordinated Community Response to Child Abuse
Child Abuse including sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect impacts children and youth in our communities every day. Locally, the Department of Family and Protective Services reported 363 confirmed cases of child abuse in Hays County in 2022 (Locally, DFPS reported 119 confirmed cases of child abuse in Caldwell County in 2022). As a community everyone plays a role in ensuring [...]
Is it Teen Drama or Teen Trauma?
Teen Relationships in Media Adolescence is the time to get to know yourself in and out of a relationship, but if all you see on screen and in books is red flags, how are you supposed to know what’s healthy or unhealthy? There has been a trend of problematic behaviors being romanticized in shows for teens. The relationships may not be [...]
