Deborah Hackworth, Interim Executive Director, and Toriann Lawrence, Child Advocate at DASAS, explore the origins of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (#TDVAM) and what DASAS does to help teach healthy relationships to young people.

Both physical and sexual violence have been linked to a greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes among women.

What are the physical health effects of violence against women? Violence has immediate effects on women’s health, which in some cases, is fatal. Physical, mental and behavioral health consequences can also persist long after the violence has stopped.

It may not be safe or effective to directly confront the abuser in every case, but there are a range of ways bystanders can be involved before, during, or after a situation when they see or hear behaviors that promote violence. Deborah Hackworth goes over some bystander intervention information on this episode.

David Flowers is a former attorney who spent his career representing victims of sexual abuse in civil litigation. David wrote Taming the Lion Tamers about the South Carolina case of convicted pedophile Eddie Fischer, and the people who protected him for decades. It’s a powerful story, and is the same case on which the Emmy-nominated documentary film What Haunts Us is based.

From what they get out of volunteering, to helping change the stigma that "men are the problem" into the idea that men are a solution, these guys offer insight into why they're involved in the DASAS movement.