Youth Media Campaign
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Program Director
Bess Bendet
With almost 20 years of nonprofit and foundation experience, Ms. Bendet brings to the Foundation a deep commitment to gender equality, as well as years of experience designing and leading effective grantmaking and program strategies.
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Key Facts
Dialing Down the Drama: Defusing Early Relationship Conflicts to Reduce Teen Dating Violence
Fact: According to a report prepared by the Family Violence Prevention Fund, Promoting Prevention, Targeting Teens, youth ages 16 to 24 are the most at-risk population for intimate partner violence.
Background
As part of its effort to end domestic violence in California, in June 2008, Blue Shield of California Foundation piloted the test phase of a media campaign aimed at providing teens with tools to defuse potentially harmful situations before they start. The strategic idea behind the campaign is getting teens to own and manage their personal "drama." The test phase launched in two California test markets: Oakland and Riverside-San Bernardino Counties.
BOM: A New Teen Brand
BOM stands for Boss of Me. BOM provides teens with tools that help them be the "boss" of themselves and empower them to manage their own relationship drama. BOM uses teen language, teen-friendly tools, humor and vernacular to help young people gain greater self-control. BOM helps teens see that by refusing to submit to feelings of anger, fear, jealousy or insecurity, they can prevent their relationship drama from escalating out of control.
In order to capitalize on teens' relationship with technology, the BOM campaign was designed to live online as a stand-alone Web site and features a variety of digital tools that can be downloaded or shared virally. These tools help teens:
- Understand when their behavior might be getting out of control (Psychometer Online Interactive Quiz)
- Express how they're choosing to control their emotions ("Make Their Mark" personalized logo design and clothing line)
- Gain control of when and where they talk to their partner (Celltagging Ringtones)
- Get help at critical times before conflicts can arise (BOM411 Text Messaging Campaign)
BOM also encourages teens to talk to a teacher or counselor if necessary, and provides a link to the National Teen Dating Abuse helpline (1-888-3BOM-411) if their drama is getting out of control.
The Foundation conducted extensive research in three distinctive phases:
1. Primary interviews with experts in adolescent development, mental health, communications, cultural and gender studies;
2. Outreach to existing community partners already working in the field with youth;
3. Ethnographic research to observe and talk to teens, to integrate their perspective and insights.
Strategic Goal
This research informed the development of the campaign's main strategic objective: to help teens defuse early relationship conflicts in order to reduce intimate partner violence. The demographic target is high school age (14-18) youth, both genders, all races and ethnicities, and the campaign seeks to engage them in the new media where they conduct their relationships. By reaching youth at a time when their first real relationships are beginning to form, the opportunity exists to make a difference before behaviors are set.
The research identified a variety of strategies to bridge these gaps and help teens defuse personal relationship conflicts:
- Taking an empathetic and non-judgmental stance;
- Offering tools and resources to teens;
- Promoting self-empowerment; and
- Leveraging their organic media culture.
Portions of the research report, Dialing Down the Drama, and strategy can be downloaded here (pdf).
The Test Phase
The BOM campaign launched in June 2008 in two California test markets: Oakland, and Riverside-San Bernardino Counties. It was publicized and supported with online and in-market advertising. An assessment of the campaign was conducted based on quantitative metrics and pre- and post- surveys. Encouraged by strong test phase results, the Foundation has funded Oakland-based Youth Radio to expand the campaign in 2009.
