Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships (Start Strong) is the largest initiative ever funded to target 11-to 14- year-olds to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. Start Strong is rallying 11 communities across the country in a public health effort. We are working together with teens, parents, caregivers, educators, and community leaders to build environments that support healthy relationships and ensure violence and abuse are never tolerated.

The Start Strong model combines and expands innovative strategies in four core areas:

• Educate and engage youth in schools and out of school settings
• Educate and engage teen influencers such as parents/caregivers, teachers and other mentors
• Change policy and environmental factors
• Implement effective communications/social marketing strategies

Our goal is to empower teens to develop healthier relationships so that together we can stop the cycle of violence.

The Start Strong Team

Start Strong is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in collaboration with the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF). Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Blue Shield of California Foundation* are investing $18 million in 11 Start Strong communities across the country to identify and evaluate the most promising pathways to stop dating violence and abuse before it starts.

The Family Violence Prevention Fund is RWJF's National Program Office (NPO) for the Start Strong initiative, providing direction and assistance to all sites. In collaboration with RWJF, the Family Violence Prevention Fund works closely with the sites to tailor the national Start Strong program to local needs.

(*Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is funding ten sites around the country and Blue Shield of California Foundation is funding one site in California.)

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, we work with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years we've brought experience, commitment and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those we serve. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, we expect to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information visit RWJF.org.

Family Violence Prevention Fund

The Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) is the national program office of the Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships initiative. FVPF works to end violence against women and children around the world, because every person has the right to live free of violence. The FVPF's National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence provides critical information to thousands of health care providers, institutions, domestic violence service providers, government agencies, researchers and policy makers each year. Its public education campaigns, conducted in partnership with The Advertising Council, have shaped public awareness and changed social norms for 15 years. For more information, visit EndAbuse.org.

Blue Shield of California Foundation

Blue Shield of California Foundation, one of the largest healthcare grantmaking organizations in California, has committed a total of $24.4 million since 2002 to ending domestic violence in the state. For more information, please visit the Web site at BlueShieldCaFoundation.org. The Foundation was formed by Blue Shield of California, a not-for-profit corporation with more than 3.4 million members, 4700 employees and more than 20 offices throughout California. For more information about the company, please visit BlueShieldCA.com.