THE REVERE ADVOCATE - Friday, May 24, 2019 Page 11 Baker-Polito Administration announces launch of public awareness campaign: “RESPECTfully” B OSTON – Governor Charlie Baker, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito and Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders recently joined legislators and advocates to announce the launch of “RESPECTfully,” a statewide public awareness and prevention campaign to promote healthy relationships among middle and high school students. The campaign stems from the work of the Governor’s Council to Address Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, which is led by Polito and has been working to reduce the number of individuals who experience sexual and domestic violence in their lives. “This campaign builds upon the hard work that Lt. Gov. Polito and the Council have done to address prevention, protect Massachusetts’ youth and expand programs for survivors,” said Baker. “I am proud to launch this initiative to provide children in Massachusetts with the tools they need to succeed and encourage parents and youth-serving organizations to engage and promote the campaign throughout the Commonwealth.” “This prevention campaign’s key message is that everyone deserves respect, honesty and open communication, and I am grateful for the hard work of the Council, the subcommittee, the youth advisory group and our partners in the Legislature in its development,” said Polito. “The campaign aims to ensure that teens across the Commonwealth are well equipped to navigate new and developing relationships and friendships in safe and healthy ways as another step to continue working towards ending sexual assault and domestic violence here in Massachusetts.” RESPECTfully is the first public awareness campaign related to preventing sexual assault and domestic violence in Massachusetts in almost 20 years, and will officially launch on social media and on platforms across the state on May 26, 2019. The Governor’s Council to Address Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence created a subcommittee of experts which conducted extensive formative research to understand the issues and pressures that young people are facing with regard to friendships and relationships, as well as ensuring that the message developed was appropriate and engaging. In addition to the subcommittee of experts, a youth advisory group from across the state was convened, which included a diverse mix of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation in order to continue to learn from the youths as the campaign developed. “Domestic violence and sexual assault is a public health issue that requires a strong prevention effort focused on awareness of what constitutes healthy relationships,” said Sudders. “Today’s youth have the power to set a new standard.” The RESPECTfully campaign aims to: • Target youth between the ages of 12-18, as well as their parents, caregivers and adults involved in youth-serving organizations. • Increase awareness about what constitutes a healthy relationship by defining characteristics using examples of acceptable vs. unacceptable behaviors. • Focus on promoting healthy relationships and confronting the issues around healthy boundaries and behaviors while communicating key components around respect and honesty through short videos with modern animations conveying a clear message on social media platforms that teens are using every day. • Encourage parents, caregivers and adults in youth-serving organizations – such as educators, mentors and school resource officers – to have open, honest, nonjudgmental and continuous conversations with youths about respect in friendships and romantic relationships in order to help to lower the risk for teens experiencing unhealthy or abusive relationships. • Help teens identify the escalating behaviors that lead to unhealthy or unsafe relationships and remove themselves from those relationships. “This campaign will help young people across Massachusetts to build healthy relaRESPECTFULLY | SEE PAGE 18
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