Save the Date:
A Curriculum for Teens on Developing Healthy Relationships

The goal of this program is to train high school students to recognize and respond to the signs of teen dating violence and to become familiar with the characteristics of a healthy relationship. Save the Date was developed by the non-profit Family Violence Project in 2004 and piloted to 1300 students at several high schools in Orange County, winning overwhelming approval from the students and teachers. It has now been distributed to 65 high schools, 18 alternative high schools, and all the teen mother and juvenile probation schools throughout Orange County. The following is a quick summary of this highly-successful program:

How is it delivered?

• Each teacher is given one Save the Date curriculum workbook that contains detailed instructions outlining every lesson. The curriculum is broken into five one-hour, activity-based lessons that can be taught in one day, one week, or over a period of five weeks in the classroom setting.

• Each lesson contains student worksheets, activity sheets, homework and consent forms (in Spanish and English, if needed).  Only one workbook is needed per teacher, who then makes copies of the worksheets to hand out to the students.

• It is recommended that teachers attend a two-hour training on the curriculum content before implementing for the first time.

Who delivers the curriculum?

• The program is intended to be delivered by high school teachers who have an existing relationship with their students. It has also been delivered by juvenile hall staff to incarcerated youth and youth group leaders to their teens.

Who is the intended audience?

• High school students, particularly tenth-grade class students of moderate  reading comprehension levels. In Orange County, the Health class teachers are the primary users. In addition, a particular focus of this program is on training teen parents and those youth who have been in contact with the juvenile court system.

What do the lessons contain?

• Lesson One: Characteristics of a Healthy Relationship
• Lesson Two: The Dynamics of Abusive Relationships
• Lesson Three: Contributing Factors that Leave Teens Vulnerable
• Lesson Four: How to Develop Healthy Relationships
• Lesson Five: How to Get Help for Yourselves and Others