Day One New York Inc.

Day One’s goals include nothing less than the elimination of intimate partner violence among youth. Educating children about how to interact respectfully with others will help them identify risk factors and unhealthy behaviors, leading to less and eventually the end to intimate partner violence. Training caregivers and professionals who work with youth helps reduce and end a tolerance for abuse in educational and home settings as well. Furthermore, as our preventive efforts move to focus increasingly on a young audience, we foresee that successful messages about healthy relationships introduced in early childhood will work to prevent additional issues such as bullying, sexual assault, and child abuse, as well as domestic violence.

Guided by the priorities that young survivors of dating abuse have shared with us, Day One has
developed expansive educational and direct service programming centered in the unique and complex challenges of teens and young adults affected by IPV. By meeting young people where they are in both our preventive and intervention programming, we strive to increase the numbers of youth who can define a healthy relationship before they even start dating, grow the numbers seeking help when necessary, and reduce tolerance for abusive behaviors in all youth settings.

Through our workshops in schools and youth programs, we aim to engage young people in conversations they typically have not yet had. We explore unhealthy gender stereotypes, the causes of dating abuse and sexual assault, how to navigate conversations about consent, risks associated with technology and how to maintain healthy relationships. Adult trainings have the goals of building skills among teachers and other professionals who can help build safe youth-serving environments and reduce tolerance of and occurrence of dating violence.

Direct services programs serve our young clients with respect, helping them rebuild their autonomy and independence following abuse. By working with young survivors to identify their own goals for safety, we increase the likelihood they will follow a self-defined plan for success, and maintain healthy relationships throughout their lives. A court order, or advocacy in a school setting, may increase the safety of an individual, and we count that as an accomplishment. But we have parallel more expansive goals of achieving safer environments for youth driven by the efforts of young people themselves.

Our youth leadership programs enhance the advocacy skills of young people and help them become peer trainers, equipped to shape the environments where they learn and grow. By training youth and offering them the atmosphere in which they can recognize their own power, Day One is building the activists and leaders of tomorrow.

Preventive Education
Through our training programs, educators deliver preventive workshops that give young people the tools to stop dating abuse before it happens, from kindergarten through college. We also train youth-serving professionals - teachers, police officers, etc. - who build their own skills to help young people who may be experiencing IPV. By prompting young people to think about and discuss their relationships from the earliest ages, and continuing until adulthood, we help youth define the relationships they want and develop strong practices around identifying unhealthy behaviors before they become unsafe.

Direct Services
Our interactive workshops link young people who may be experiencing abuse, and professionals who work with at-risk youth, to our direct services programs. Our team of attorneys and social workers provides counseling and advocacy that reduce trauma and increase safety, specifically in under-resourced communities. Individual and group counseling have a dramatic impact on young survivors, many of whom mistakenly blame themselves for their abuse and might assume they are alone in their experience. With the support of their peers, they regain a community focused on strength and mutual support. Legal services are provided based on the specific needs of each survivor; an attorney might assist with a campus disciplinary hearing following a sexual assault or pursue a restraining order that includes a bar against contact via social media. Our strategy is to provide information to young people about options for relief, help them pursue their goals, and respect their choices once made.

Leadership Development
Our Youth Voices Network (YVN) is a group of young survivors of relationship violence who organize and participate in awareness, outreach and advocacy projects, peer support and public speaking at conferences or on panels. Their authentic and compelling stories deliver impactful preventive messages to young people and adults. YVN has reached thousands through panels and presentations for youth, and media appearances in a range of venues. They teach young people the signs of dating abuse and how to prevent it and direct survivors to helpful resources and support.

Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (RAPP)
RAPP embeds social workers in 8 high schools. During the school year, they offer individual and group counseling to young survivors of IPV and deliver preventive workshops in classrooms. RAPP Coordinators support students through the process of creating a culture that stands up to violence in their schools. Our Summer Peer Leadership Institute offers 50+ students paid positions where they develop leadership and outreach skills, participate in career-oriented training, and prepare to become advocates in their schools the following year.

Day One’s strength lies in its exceptional staff. Our primary goal is to attract the best candidates and foster a healthy culture, program continuity, and sustainability. Our 35 full-time staff members reflect the diversity of the communities and young people that we serve. During the hiring process, our priority is to engage professionals that are advocates and activists who are passionately committed to and respectful of the autonomy and needs of youth. Staff members bring a range of cultural, racial, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds to the organization.

The organization is managed by a four-person leadership team: the Executive Director, Director of Social Services & Training, Director of Finance & Administration and the Director of Legal Services. Three out of four individuals identify as female and two out of four are people of color. The Executive Director and founder of Day One has been working in the domestic violence field for over twenty years. Collectively, the leadership team has over 45 years of experience working with youth and anti-violence.

Intimate partner violence among youth is just as dangerous as it is among adults, and far more common. Day One is uniquely equipped to take on these challenges. We are the only nonprofit in the region that devotes 100% of its resources to the needs of dating abuse survivors and youth at risk, aged 24 and younger. For 15 years, we have provided legal assistance, counseling and preventive education to assist over 90,000 youth. Today, Day One is looked to as the leading expert on dating abuse and sexual assault among youth in New York.

Day One has grown exponentially in the past three years and we have additional opportunity for expansion ahead. New York City has 400 high schools and over one million students in the school system. We expect to scale up in multiple directions: going wider through the use of technology, employing new models to reach more diverse audiences, and deepening the impact of our prevention. (1) By investing in digital awareness messages and online educational tools, we will introduce healthy and protective concepts to a wider audience. (2) We expect to continue to reach more youth through train-the-trainer models; increase access to educational tools for non-English speakers, and grow our early childhood work as we lead the emerging conversation about introducing healthy relationship concepts and behaviors as early as possible. (3) We will continue to diversify our curricula to go more in depth; by spending more time with students we can work toward lasting behavior change.