The Jennifer Ann Crecente Memorial Group, Inc.

Preventing teen dating violence through awareness, education, and advocacy.

Awareness: increase awareness among students, teachers, school administrators, parents, and legislators about the prevalence of dating abuse amongst tweens, teens, and young adults (ages 11 - 24). We are achieving this through social media and online resources.

Education: provide educational information to help identify unhealthy relationship behavior and how to seek help if needed. We are achieving this through distribution of our online resources and educational bookmarks. We also run the annual Life.Love. Game Design Challenge which awards prizes to video game developers for creating video games about dating violence.

Advocacy: educate the public and legislators about the need for laws requiring school districts to have formal policies regarding teen dating violence and the need for laws that provide equal protection to nonmarried victims of abuse.

Changing unhealthy beliefs or attitudes: when young people witness or otherwise learn unhealthy attitudes regarding relationship and gender norms they are more likely to engage in, or otherwise be accepting of, those same unhealthy attitudes or beliefs. Through our Gaming Against Violence program we are effectively changing those attitudes or beliefs through use, discussion, and dissemination of our evidence-based prosocial video games. As of March 2023, two published peer-reviewed journal articles support this approach to dealing with these difficult and sensitive issues. We have produced more than 60 bespoke prosocial games intended to promote violence prevention among adolescents.

Leveraging technology and creative solutions to reach and empower an international audience. Our Gaming Against Violence program has produced over sixty prosocial video games that engage, educate, and empower young people about issues related to bystander awareness, consent, critical thinking, cultural impacts, gaslighting, media literacy, power and control, resilience, and warning signs of an abusive relationship.

In 2022 our Gaming Against Violence program was selected as a Top-50 nonprofit program in the U.S.; our game Culture Overlord was an official Games for Change Awards nominee in the category of Best Learning Game; we were recognized by the El Paso County Commissioners for our work to prevent teen dating violence; and we received a grant from the Everytown Survivors Network for our work to support victims of violence and prevent future violence. We also managed a speakers panel at the Meaningful Play Conference discussing the use of prosocial video games for violence prevention. The game theme for 2022 was resilience.

In 2021 our games Sea of Roses and Culture Overlord were both finalists for the GEE Educational Games Award. Also we spoke at universities (virtually) in Georgia, New York, and Texas to graduate and undergraduate students in the fields of public health, criminal justice, and sociology. We also managed a speakers panel at the PAX Unplugged Conference discussing the use of non-digital games for violence prevention. The game theme for 2021 was power & control in relationships.

In 2020 our game Lamplight Hollow was a winning game of the 2020 JungleJam Dreamhack Anaheim. Also in 2020 we spoke at several conferences (virtually) including: Games for Change, Texas Psychological Association Annual Conference, and PLAY-NYC. Also in 2020 we were recognized by DeKalb County as Torchbearer of the Month for our work and by the El Paso County Commissioners for our work in prevention of teen dating violence. The game theme for 2020 was cultural impacts on adolescents' perceptions of healthy dating relationships and gender norms.

For 2019 our game Rispek Danis was an official Games for Change Awards nominee in the category of Most Significant Impact. Also in 2019 our consent game ADRIFT was featured in the MOD museum in Australia where a life-size version of the game was recreated for museum visitors to learn about consent. The game theme for 2019 was gaslighting.

Since 2008 we have produced over sixty video games which engage, educate, and empower adolescents. Our Gaming Against Violence program has been pilot tested at the largest school district in Texas, El Paso Independent School District. We are continuing our research efforts to iteratively improve and refine these games to educate young people and to change unhealthy beliefs or attitudes regarding dating relationships and gender norms.