Preventing Teen Dating Violence

“Boss of Me” (BOM) campaign

In 2006, the Foundation commissioned groundbreaking research on dating violence. The resulting report, Dialing Down the Drama, laid the groundwork for a youth media campaign advising teens on how to defuse early relationship conflicts.

In June 2008, the Foundation piloted the test phase of BOM ("Boss of Me"), a media campaign that provides teens with tools to manage their personal “drama” and defuse harmful situations before they start. BOM411.com uses teen-friendly language and humor to help young people gain greater self-control.

In 2009, the Foundation partnered with grantee, Youth Radio, to expand the campaign’s reach statewide through radio, texting, a revamped website, and a deeper social media presence. Youth “ambassadors” lead these efforts, generating content and organizing BOM events.

The Foundation has compiled lessons learned from BOM, about defusing conflict to prevent teen dating violence, into a multimedia presentation. View the Dialing Down the Drama site to learn how the campaign was developed, its key elements, and the lessons learned by the Foundation and its partners over the course of the project.

"This campaign is what I like to call “FY-BY,” or “for youth by youth,” because everything from the media content down to the colors of the site had creative inspiration from the BOM ambassadors."
Mario Hammond, BOM Ambassador

Start Strong

In 2008, the Foundation entered a four-year collaboration with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on "Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships.” This national effort enables individual communities to create and evaluate new ways of preventing teen dating violence and abuse. We are supporting Los Angeles-based Peace Over Violence, one of 11 Start Strong sites.

A Thin Line 

In 2009, as part of MTV’s “A Thin Line” campaign,” aimed at stopping the spread of abuse in the form of sexting, cyberbullying, and digital dating abuse, the Foundation launched the “Redraw the Line Challenge” to encourage young people to create digital solutions (for mobile services, games, viral videos, etc.) that help put an end to digital abuse.

What We Do and Don’t Fund

The Foundation is not accepting unsolicited requests for support for projects related to the prevention of teen dating violence.

Visit our What We Fund page for information about Blue Shield of California Foundation’s open funding opportunities.