Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month is an opportunity to move beyond awareness and focus on what truly reduces harm: prevention.
Dating violence does not appear in isolation. It is shaped by norms, power dynamics, and a lack of tools that help young people understand what healthy relationships look like. Too often, systems respond only after harm has occurred. At Urban Resource Institute (URI), we believe prevention must start earlier and be treated as essential infrastructure.
Through our Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (RAPP) and Early RAPP, URI works across middle and high schools throughout New York City to help young people build foundational relationship skills. These programs support youth in recognizing red flags, practicing communication, setting boundaries, and understanding consent before unhealthy behaviors escalate.
This focus is not theoretical. Each year, URI’s work collectively impacts more than 40,000 New Yorkers, and nearly 65 percent of the people living in our shelters are children and youth. Prevention is not a side effort. It is central to who we serve and how we work to create safer futures.
Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month makes one reality clear: prevention fails when responsibility is fragmented. When systems wait until harm occurs, they accept violence as inevitable rather than preventable. Ensuring young people have access to trusted information and meaningful support cannot rest on nonprofits alone. Real progress requires coordinated, sustained investment across education systems, policy, and community infrastructure, with a shared commitment to prioritizing prevention before crisis.
At URI, we see prevention as a long-term investment in safety, dignity, and stability. When we teach young people what healthy relationships look like, we are not just responding to violence. We are helping to stop it before it starts.
