FREE BODY RESPECT SESSION
You can download our facilitator's guide for the Body Session from our new Respect: Keep It Going! Kit. You can use the guide to lead teen girls or young women in a powerful respect-building session focused on their bodies. Fill out this form to download the session guide!

Now, more than ever, self-care needs to mean so much more. Self-care is actually the ultimate form of self-respect. Maybe it can even save the world? Stay with me...

Because here's the thing I don't always want to admit: When my self-care sucks, my integrity wanes. I cancel on you at the last-minute. I show up half-hearted. I'm more cranky and close-minded. I don't pay attention. I make more messes. I'm not as helpful. That one really sucks because my No. 1 goal in life is to be of service. So self-care is really that important for me. Or I actually get really off track in life. And I want my partners (professional and romantic) to up their self-care too—otherwise everything suffers. We're not fooling anyone (and neither are you).

For me, honest self-care doesn't mean cramming in 50 minutes at the gym in which the whole time I'm thinking about what I'll make for dinner and that the engine light is on in my car and that she had some nerve. So if it's not just about bubble baths and hitting the gym, what does this "self-care" stuff mean?

One of the definitions of care is: "watchful attention." I love this definition. This is where I smell the world-changing potential of real self-care. To this end, I've broken self-care down into a totally scientific process I call S.T.O.P. Try it!

LEAD ON 2009: CHECKED BAGGAGE from Ellen Frankenstein on Vimeo.

As part of the movement to end domestic violence, we're offering one of our signature workshop sessions, The Respect Basics, to teen advocates for free.

Free Workshop Session (Leader's Guide)
You can use the leader's guide for this 60-minute session, an excerpt from our Respect: Keep It Going! Kit, to help teens explore how to use the Respect Basics in their own lives, relationships and, ultimately, to end forms of disrespect like domestic and dating violence.

We hope this session will strengthen your domestic and dating violence prevention programs by showing teens that no matter what form of disrespect they're struggling with: respect is the remedy.

Click here to download the free workshop:

We agree: All people need the Respect Basics. That's why our programs unite youth and their advocates to set their own standards for respect and to learn how to model respect. Starting, of course, with respect on the inside!

After attending a Respect Rx program, 500 teens surveyed showed notable shifts: 

• 98% understood the difference between respect and disrespect (up from 51% prior to attending the program)
• 84% understood how to respect themselves (up from 25%).
• 90% respected each other as equals (up from 65%).
• 94% said they feel more comfortable setting boundaries and speaking up (up from 70%).
• 73% understood how to create respect in their relationships (up from 39%).
• 81% said they will definitely get help when they were disrespected or if they need it to achieve their goals or create change (up from 42%).
• 82% felt equipped to make positive choices and act as role models (up from 42%).

1. Book
My friend Victor Rivas, spokesperson for the National Network to End Domestic Violence, wrote this gripping memoir about his own survival of domestic violence. I feel it is especially powerful for teens to read as Victor tells his story of finally breaking free by telling his truth and getting help.
A Private Family Matter: A Memoir

2. Hotline
U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-7233
Resources

3. Programs
Family Violence Prevention Fund
Check out its Respect Campaign and Lessons from Literature program.

4. Parent Tools
MADE and Love is Not Abuse
Free program that moms, dads and schools can lead to prevent and end teen dating violence.
Learn more here

Based on my own risky journey with sex as a teen, to me a big part of the "solution" (there isn't one cure-all) comes down to boosting self-respect from many fronts. Imagine from age 0 that kids have a community, role models, school, organizations, family, friends and values around them that support the development of healthy self-respect. Well then risky choices become less of a risk factor, right? This is true for all the biggies that can derail a teen down the line from dating violence to drug abuse to, yes, unplanned pregnancy.

1 in 5 teens who have been in a serious relationship report being hit, slapped or pushed by a partner...57% of U.S. teens have had a friend in an abusive relationship

You can now host a Respect Rally for teen girls and guys, as well as young adults, with a special focus on domestic violence prevention. In addition to our usual activities that focus on exploring and skill-building around The Respect Basics, this special Rally covers:
• the cycle of violence
• how to recognize the signs of an abusive relationship
• how to set boundaries and create mutually respectful relationships from the get-go

This is an empowering outcomes-based program to book during Domestic Violence Awareness Month this October. After attending a traditional Respect Rally, 500 teens surveyed showed the following notable shifts:

The Rally is now designed for those in:
-middle school (120 minutes)
-high school (4 hours)
-college (day-long retreat)

Book your Back-to-School Rally
Our schedule is filling up quick--so email us asap to discuss your Rally. We know many of your budgets are tight, but that's not going to stop us from spreading respect. We're working on a sliding scale (we can serve up to 1,000 participants with one Rally depending on adult volunteers.). And once we lead your Rally, we'll ideally want to train you to deliver it on your own next time.

Download the Co-Ed Rally Information Kit!

CONTACT US

The No. 1 way girls say the feel respected: "When people listen to me." If there is a problem effecting girls, we know firsthand that girls hold the solutions. Just ask!

We're at your service,
Respect Rx

Here is the post!

September marked the launch of our new program: The Respect Rally, which inspire girls to change their worlds—inside and out.

After holding a Rally in Salem, OR., we led a Rally for Notre Dame High School San Jose, CA. As our volunteers, teachers and other supporters of Respect Rx were coming in and helping us out in the gym we could not wait to meet the 600 high school girls! As time flew by, it was finally time for the first slide of our rally, and the climate of the room could not have been more empowering.

There were 600 pairs of beautiful eyes staring onto stage, waiting to hear what the Rally leaders (Courtney, Respect Rx founder, and Jennifer Davidson, founder of Reality Check Coaching) were all about. Well it did not take long for them to fall in love with both of these empowering women and just seeing how both their positive energies work together. Once the Respect Rx team got the crowd going these girls were dying to speak out. The girls sat in pods of 12 and did activities focused on building respect in three categories: Myself, My Relationships and My World. After each activity, lines with more than 20 girls would form when we asked to come up and speak to their classmates. At one point girls even spontaneously broke into dancing around the gym in a big train to the song "Unwritten."