Grant Awarded to Fight Teen Dating Violence in Wayland

The press release below was submitted by Metrowest Health Foundation.

The MetroWest Health Foundation announced today that REACH Beyond Domestic Violence Inc., a Waltham, Mass., nonprofit, is being awarded nearly $40,000 to reduce teen dating violence in Wayland.

REACH plans to use the grant to educate 500 teens about building healthy relationships through classroom curriculum, parent training, training for school faculty and staff and by working with peer leadership groups.

Violence and teen dating violence among Wayland High School students is above the MetroWest average according to the 2010 MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey which found:

• 43 percent of Wayland High School students have been involved in a physical fight in the last 12 months compared to 22 percent in MetroWest.
• 19 percent of Wayland High School students report being physically hurt by a dating partner in their lifetime and 13 percent report being physically hurt by their partner in the last 12 months compared to 9 percent and 7 percent respectively in MetroWest.
• 13 percent of Wayland High School students report having been forced to have intercourse in their lifetime and 19 percent say they’ve been forced to engage in other sexual activities in their lifetime compared to 6 percent and 9 percent respectively for MetroWest.

“Our hope is, if successful, this program can be replicated in a lot of MetroWest communities,” said Martin Cohen, president of the Foundation.

The REACH grant was one of nine totaling nearly $450,000 approved by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees last week.