Prevention-Through-Education
Like many awareness and prevention months, this month has a color – orange – and that brings up the first way you can help prevent violent relationships from forming.

On Tuesday, February 11, 2025 you can raise awareness about the problem of relationship violence and the experiences we provide for free to prevent it. All you have to do is wear something orange. When people ask you why you – and so many other people – are wearing orange, you can explain you’re creating awareness about how teen dating violence can be prevented through education, and then direct them to this page (https://projectrealnv.org/teendating) where they’ll find the same information you’re about to encounter.

Bring Prevention Into Nevada’s Classrooms
On this site we’ve linked to a publication we created that will help young adults understand the myths about dating violence, the true challenges of escaping a violent relationship, and why so many people find themselves in violent relationships to begin with. If you end up reading it, that’s great, but we know that most teens won’t just read it on their own out of curiosity.

That’s why we need your help.

We offer a 2-class period / single-block-period experience that ensures our work preventing relationship violence has a maximum impact. This experience is open to anyone, though we typically deliver it to Government/Econ classes. Students first spend 45-55 minutes listening to our guest speak tell them a story illustrates how anyone can be a victim – or perpetrator – of relationship violence.

While we work tirelessly to connect with school administrators and the government instructors we hope to partner with, often times we come off as sales people and so our message does not get through. This is where you can help:

Whether you’re a teacher who contacts us directly, a school administrator willing to set up a call or a meeting, a parent who wants to help connect us with your students’ instructors, or a student that’s partnered with an advisor, we need your assistance simply bringing our free experience to the attention of the administrators and teachers at the school that’s important to you.

To get started, please contact our Senior Director to let us know who you are and what school you’re contacting us about, and we’ll take things on from there.* He can be reached at either of these points of contact:

If you’re willing to help spread awareness online, we’d really appreciate it!

Please click the English or Spanish language image-spread below to download a pack of 10 images we created to help introduce Nevadans to the resources and experiences we offer.

Please use them throughout the month of February across any social media platforms you use, linking back to this site so we can connect our resources with as many people as possible.

Teen dating violence is a problem for everyone to deal with: If we can educate teens about dating violence, we can prevent violent relationships from forming for both teens and adults!

Did you know that the experience Project REAL offers was actually inspired by a law that embodied a few Nevadan teens’ request for schools to teach them about relationship violence? That request – along with our current push for ‘Wear Orange Day’ on February 10th in schools throughout Nevada – were student-driven initiatives, and we’d like to take a moment to explain how young adults in our state have directly contributed to a safer Nevada.

The Experience

In 2017, the Nevada Legislature passed SB108. That bill (now a law) required the Nevada Department of Education to study how it could make learning about laws a graduation requirement for Nevada’s high school seniors. The bill was created by the Nevada Youth Legislature: a two-year program that gives high school students an opportunity to learn about representative government and take an active role in the legislative process. This includes presenting one bill per term to the Nevada Legislature on an issue important to Nevada youth. Interested students may submit an application to represent the senatorial district in which they live or attend high school. Each of Nevada's 21 state senators appoints a youth legislator to represent his or her senatorial district.



SB108 began as the brainchild of one member of the 2017 Nevada Youth Legislature group in particular. She was determined to find a way to embed education about domestic violence and sexual violence into existing classes in Nevada. Our state has had a history of residents disagreeing on what should be included in health classes, with sex education being a particularly challenging topic to find consensus on. The student responsible – Olivia Yamamoto – had the idea of teaching students about consent, sex crimes, and domestic violence within the context of law rather than health: an approach that she correctly posited could achieve consensus among state legislators and the communities they serve. This led to the idea of requiring certain legal information in required social studies and civics classes.

The Nevada Youth Legislature is a collaborative process, so while Ms. Yamamoto’s idea won out among the many suggestions put forward that year, each student taking part in the group had contributions to make. Collectively, they accurately recognized that the bill would garner more support if it wasn’t focused exclusively on relationship and sex violence laws, but many common laws young adults’ lives are likely to be shaped by.



Our publication ‘Independence & You’ was already in development when SB108 was put forward, and remained in development when the bill passed. Ms. Yamamoto’s original vision stayed with our team members who were developing that publication though. As we determined the best way to get the guides into the hands of Nevada’s students, her idea of focusing on preventing sexual and relationship violence through law-related education stuck with us. Eventually, we tied distribution of the guides with the relationship violence experience we provide today – at no cost to the students, schools, and community groups we serve.

If it’s not already clear, our experience that is serving thousands of students each year was shaped directly by students – students that were asking for the exact kind of learning opportunity we now offer.

Nevada Teens & Wear Orange Day
Each year, we encourage you to find out when Wear Orange Day is happening in your community and take the opportunity to highlight local efforts to prevent relationship violence.

This is a preventable issue, and Nevada’s teenagers have the power to be part of the solution! At Project REAL, we believe that if this problem impacts teens and young adults, then our state’s youth should have the chance to contribute to solving it.

If a school you’re connected to is participating in Wear Orange Day, consider using the opportunity—together with other students or peers you work with—to speak with the school’s leadership team. You could collectively inspire them to host Project REAL's free relationship violence prevention experience. This program doesn’t just foster important conversations about relationship violence prevention—it also provides students with free copies of our Adulting 101 guides, packed with practical knowledge to help them navigate adulthood and make informed, empowered decisions. Let’s work together to bring this impactful experience to your school before the year ends!



It All Comes Together

In 2017 the students of the Nevada Youth Legislature asked adults to help prevent crime (and to some degree, relationship and sexual violence in particular) through education. By wearing orange as part of Wear Orange Days at their schools in February 2023, Nevada’s students will again be asking adults to prevent relationship violence through education. This is a youth-powered movement, and we’re overjoyed and honored to be a part of it.

To the students of Nevada who take part, thank you!