CRISTINA: Dating abuse is a silent epidemic. One in three young people are experiencing it

and two thirds of those don't tell anyone.

JONATHAN: I'm a Junior in high school and I see it all the time.

A lot, a lot of mental, a lot of verbal.

DR. OKER: Parents don't know how to detect it, and when they do, they don't know what to do.

When they report it to schools, schools don't understand what to do.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[CROWD NOISES]

JASMINE: Love is Respect is the partnership between the National Domestic Violence Hotline

and Break The Cycle. It's the ultimate resource online, off line, 24/7 for teens to get information

about teen dating violence and healthy relationships.

CRISTINA: Thank you all so much for coming to the Start Talking Institute.

We are so excited to have you here.

DR. OKER: Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans and Love is Respect have teamed up to support

our families and our children to remain healthy and safe, and that's what this is all about.

DYANNE: This partnership is going to put innovative curriculum in the hands of young people so

that they can begin talking with their friends and their peers about dating abuse.

STACEY: In 2009, a friend of my son's was murdered by her boyfriend. And I just started

thinking we gotta start talking to our young girls. In our community it's a taboo subject.

GERARDO: Everybody that's interested in helping the community with it,

they don't really have the skills in even how to talk about it.

JASMINE: The one thing that I am excited about with the Start Talking Curriculum

is that it is peer led. So there are peers talking to peers.

JOEY: Where do we draw the line? So, if you're comfortable with 50 text messages

a day with you and your partner, stand over here.

[LAUGHING]

JOEY: What about 500 text messages in a day?

STUDENT #1: I don't think I text that much.

STUDENT #2: It's not really about the relationship at that point.

It's about me, I need time to breathe.

VaLarie: Our student leaders? I hope they get something that they can take back.

Because our girls will listen to them, because that's their peers.

STUDENT: If you are in a good relationship, then you should have that trust and set boundaries.

CRISTINA: to have a leader in the community like Blue Cross and Blue Shield come out,

support us, and bring us all together, I just think they deserve a huge round of applause.

[APPLAUSE]

DYANNE: We want to get this in every classroom, on every college campus. We want to get this

in the hands of peer leaders and health care professionals so that we can

change this conversation, we can change this epidemic and we can end dating abuse.

MALLORY: I think it's gonna be a wake up call for more people. The stuff they see, some

people think it's a healthy relationship. But I'm here to let them know that, what's

healthy, what's not healthy and what's abusive.

[MUSIC ENDS]