Intimate partner violence is a serious public health issue. Too many people, including young adults, find themselves in violent, abusive and damaging relationships. On October 22, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships is launching a campaign to take "healthy relationships to the streets." By helping to define what a healthy relationship is—how to have them, build them and keep them—Start Strong hopes to transform conversations about dating to focus on developing healthy relationships before violence and abuse begins.

Start Strong teens nationwide are orchestrating local events on this day of prevention, taking the issue of teen dating violence and abuse into the streets where they live during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Students, legislators, community leaders and advocates are partnering with Start Strong teen leaders to spark conversations about healthy relationships. The program encourages everyone across the country to get involved in this record breaking day to share their thoughts about healthy relationships.

Support is crucial. Spread the word by visiting the Start Strong Web site to share your relationship feedback and learn how to post a healthy relationship conversation starter to your Facebook or Twitter profile.

About Start Strong

Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships is the largest initiative ever funded to target 11-to-14-year-olds and rally communities to promote healthy relationships as a way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. The October 22 event is just one element of Start Strong’s comprehensive four-year program to discover the most promising ways to combat this costly and growing public health epidemic. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is funding 10 sites across the country and Blue Shield of California Foundation is funding one site in California. The Family Violence Prevention Fund, one of the nation's leading organizations working to prevent domestic and sexual violence, serves as the national program office for Start Strong.