What Service Providers Can Do to Better Support Youth Experiencing Violence

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. At the SF Domestic Violence Consortium (DVC) Community Cafe this month, service providers from APILO, Cameron House, and Black Women Revolt Against Domestic Violence shared how our organizations support youth affected by relationship violence. This brief captures the research-based takeaways and concrete steps that apply across the field, whether you serve youth directly or encounter them through family-facing work.

Why This Matters

Teen dating violence (TDV) affects approximately 1 in 3 adolescents nationally. The CDC classifies it as an adverse childhood experience. It includes physical, sexual, emotional, digital, stalking, and economic abuse. Youth in marginalized communities face disproportionate risk: 27% of youth experiencing homelessness, 39% of LGBTQ+ youth in unstable housing, and 26% of Black and Native American youth report higher rates of physical and sexual dating violence.

These are not individual risk factors. They are structural conditions shaped by housing instability, economic exclusion, child welfare involvement, and discrimination. Service providers across sectors encounter these youth. Most have received no training on TDV.

Six Steps for Service Providers

• Screen with care. Ask about relationship safety in private settings. Use validated tools. Never screen in front of partners or family members. Build in private check-in moments during intake and case management.
• Build trusted connections. Youth need adults who show up consistently. If you work with a young client over time, that relationship is protective. A 20% reduction in TDV is linked to meaningful adult communication. Be that adult.
• Support healthy boundaries. Help youth recognize coercion and regulate emotions in relationships. This is not about teaching them to say no. It is about helping them build internal frameworks for recognizing when something does not feel right.
• Connect to resources outside schools. Most TDV education is school-based. Youth who are detained, homeless, or frequently absent are excluded. If you serve youth in any setting, provide relationship safety information. Partner with community-based organizations that offer prevention programming in shelters, group homes, detention centers, and drop-in spaces.
• Never blame youth. Check intake forms, assessments, and case notes. If the language implies fault, change it. TDV reflects structural conditions, not personal failure.
• Center youth agency. Youth know their situation best. A young person not ready to leave a relationship is navigating real constraints around safety, housing, immigration status, and survival. Expand options. Do not narrow them.

What the Research Says Protects Youth

Two factors reduce TDV risk, and both are disrupted for youth in vulnerable contexts. Meaningful adult communication reduces TDV by 20%, but only 77% of youth experiencing homelessness have any, compared to 87% of housed youth. Pro-social friendships reduce TDV by 37%, but only 82% of youth in juvenile justice have them, compared to 90% of youth at home.

Youth-serving programs that provide consistent mentorship and peer community strengthen both protective factors. When you refer a young person to a youth council, mentorship program, or community-based organization, you are connecting them to evidence-based prevention.

Next Steps

• Review your intake forms and case notes for language that implies youth are at fault for relationship violence. Replace it.
• Build private check-in moments into your practice. Youth will not disclose TDV in front of partners, parents, or other clients.
• Connect with community-based organizations doing youth prevention work outside of schools. In San Francisco, reach out to API Legal Outreach (APILO), Cameron House, or Black Women Revolt Against Domestic Violence.
• Advocate for TDV training at your agency. Most providers receive none. The SF Domestic Violence Consortium (dvcpartners.org) coordinates training and cross-agency learning.

SF Bay Area Youth-Serving Organizations

API Legal Outreach (APILO)

• Youth Advisory Council: paid youth leadership, participatory research, and policy advocacy on gender violence prevention for API and immigrant youth. dtiegs@apilegaloutreach.org

Cameron House

• DV counseling, safety planning, and youth leadership development for the Chinese-American community in Chinatown. Cantonese and Mandarin services. cameronhouse.org

Black Women Revolt Against DV

• California’s first Black women-centered Family Violence Resource Center. Culturally specific services, advocate training, and developing youth TDV prevention. blackwomenrevolt.org