Team V!

What is a healthy relationship to you? 18-25 year old leader have set out to create debate and raise awareness to what exactly is a healthy, fulfilling and supportive relationship. There goal is to address girls and boys beginning to form romantic relationship and what they should and should not expect in a relationship. The alarming truth is that most youths don’t know where to go if their relationship takes an alarming turn. Furthermore, they may not know what behavior is unacceptable or harmful in relationships, but how could they? Currently 26% of teens have not received sexual or relationship education. This leads to statistics like one in five teens believe its okay to tell a girlfriend or boyfriend what to do. Similarly, nearly 75% of girls and 50% of boys have reported some sort of emotional partner abuse. If we continue to not talk about relationships there’s no hope in these statistics ever changing. The women in Manifesta were able to make progress through open dialogue about their current situations. By bringing women together they were able to open up and express their true feelings on relationships. They were also able to connect each other to other support groups in which they were involved in. 

Currently 81% of teens experiencing abuse never have access to support. The leaders from Team V are hoping to change that. They are currently working with support groups to open up a dialogue about relationships. Along with this they are using social media, a potential trademark of fourth wave feminism, to reach out to teens across the globe. The volunteer positions range from bloggers to support services to photographers and are available now.  In order to improve the social norms we need to feel comfortable talking to younger generations about issues such as sex and relationships. I personally will be the first to admit that the talks may sometimes be uncomfortable. However I believe the goal is to get to the point were everyone is so vulnerable that no one is vulnerable. If we can do this, similar to the women and Manifesta, we can create global change.

For the link to the Team-V video click here