Good money, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
It is time now for our community connection right here on K one,
the one you trust, and we got some nice rays of sunshine, but
we also have some wonderful ways of hope in our studio today. Hey Ben,
hey guy, ye how you doing doing well? How are you?
Dylan's wonderful? I do believe. Wow, we've got The month of February
is flying by. Yes, Wow, where did it go? I have
no idea, I think before we know what we're going to be at the
end of twenty four. Oh yeah, indeed. But you know, February
is the month of romance. It's a time where people send their a little
Valentine's and pledge their undying love and affection for others. But it's also a
time to kind of keep the antenna up, especially with young people. Dating
is a new process for young people. Well okay, it's a new process
for old people too. You know, they haven't been at it for a
while. But they just don't know everything. They can't know everything. They're
yell, got any advice, Well, so for a friank because I got
some shits. Yeah, So February is team dating Violence Awareness Month. That's
kind of what brings us in today, and we just wanted to kind of
talk about it and some of the statistics around teen dating violence. And then
one of the trainings that we offer at Rate of Hope that our wonderful the
COC has she's the lead instructor for and it does a fantastic job by sharing
it in our communities. Wow, tell us a little bit about what's going
on. Yeah, So, as been said, in twenty ten, Congress
declared February teen dayating Violence Awareness Month. So we're kind of just bringing awareness
out there. I do a training. I'm certified in it. It's not
just me going on the internet, you know, looking out random facts.
But it's a one love curriculum. It was started by a parent whose daughter,
your lead love, actually passed away due to teen dating violence. So
you know, that's kind of an extreme, but it's something that we want
to prevent because actually one in five women and one in seven men who experience
teen dating violence in their youth, so that's thirteen to seventeen actually go on
to experience intimate partner violence later on in their life. So if we can
stop that cycle, we definitely want to do. So, wow, we
that is something that's a change that's got to be broken, right, It's
got to be broken right now, it, I guess, because you know,
we all come from different backgrounds, different dynamics and stuff like that,
what is acceptable and what is not acceptable sometimes rolls into different areas just depending
on your environment. Absolutely, is that the big factor. Yeah, I
mean one hundred percent of us are in relationships one hundred percent of the time.
So while there are some cultural aspects to it, there are definitely things
that are red flags and absolute lo nos across the board. Then that's something
that we touch on in the training flags. So some of the red flags
that we have are volatility, like getting angry quickly is how I like to
explain it to the children, you know, to the kids, to the
young teens, kind of like a volcano it ERPs out of nowhere. We
have possessiveness and isolation. It's crazy how quickly you see isolation, even in
younger children. How those things play out. And then not respecting boundaries,
which is a huge one. One I don't care where you are. I
don't care you have to be a dating thing. Yeah, no, and
it's not. And one of the great things about the One Love Curriculum is
that I can also offer it to grade school age children in forms of friendships.
Yeah, I mean, it's a great way to kind of not to
take away from teen dating violence, but to kind of start talking about relationships
and friendships. It does lean more towards bullying, but it's a great way
to realize that you deserve respecting one hundred percent of your relationships. You do.
Yeah, Ben, you surround yourself with some pretty smart people. I
gotta tell you, I do. I do. I'm very very grateful for
that. Now with a Ray of Hope, tell us a little bit about
I mean, we know that we're working together here, but you kind of
get the hard part as far as turning things around and getting people into the
right direction, right, because sometimes turning things around is an undertaking. It
definitely is so Ray of Hope. We are a nonprofit here in Bartlesville that
we are a child advocacy and a domestic violence resource center. Along with those
those resources, we're also able to provide trainings and those kinds of things in
our community, which is great. But yeah, absolutely, and that's what
a lot of it is is. It's prevention and education through just through our
child advocacy side, we're able to help families and children kind of begin the
healing process after some type of child abuse, neglect, those kinds of things.
Uh, And then also on our domestic violence side, we're able to
help with counseling, court advocacy, emergency protective orders, even just emergency emergency
housing, helping folks kind of just get out of dodge, find a way
to find a safe place because that situation that they may be and maybe extremely
unsafe and there they've decided it's time to go. So we're able to really
step in and kind of help help in those moments. We also offer free
in house counseling and we've we've got a lot going on going on. Our
agency is we're growing and so that's that's another thing. So if anybody is
looking for looking for a un employment opportunity, we are hiring for a court
advocate. So which is it's a pretty big job that yeah, oh great,
there you go. You know the thing, I've known people who've done
these court advocacy Yeah, and it's not a job for them, it's their
passion and you know, they kind of wear the heart on the sleeve there
too, but they keep things in check because they know they have to advocate
passionately for the client, but they also have to make sure that they over
east ye and everything. Getting back to a teen dating violence awareness one with
teens, this is also new. I mean, here you are, you're
thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old. You just got done thinking that you
know, other people don't have cooties, and you get into that and it's
like, I got all these feelings, but I don't have any kind of
direction here a little bit of help, and you're not going to ask mom
and dad. Well, sometimes you do, but not very often. And
this is where things kind of go around with the kids. They don't ask
enough questions. Is that is that pretty much yet? Yeah? I have
found, thankfully that the environment that I put out during these presentations is pretty
open, so I do get random questions, which is great because I want
the teens and the young adults to feel safe in the space. I have
had parents attend these sessions, like just sit in on them, and it
doesn't discourage questions, which is great because having other you know, like classmates
or peers ask questions really facilitates it for me because kids aren't afraid to ask,
So that's good. They used to be. Yeah, they're not so
afraid anymore. Like if this were going on in the nineteen sixties when I
was a kid, Oh yeah, Okay, First of all, I wouldn't
be asking my parents a whole lot because I couldn't even figure out how they
got together, Right, what do you want to go there? I can't
even imagine them as teenagers. Okay, but now you know, I think
the kids are a lot more aware. There's real, yes, a lot
more understanding of this, that and the other. But it also makes your
job a little easier when they're so open with the questions, the longer for
that knowledge they really do. They're actually I've seen with the kids that I've
presented to, even in the elementary age range, they're very emotionally aware of
things. I don't know what that's a testament or a result of, but
it does facilitate things. And also, I don't know if you know this
about this, but this about me, but I'm actually really funny. So
it kind of like lightens the mood and it opens up for children to and
she said, I looked like my priest. Yes, laugh a minute.
I do, look like you do. I do. And you know s
also has a great gift with kids. She is a past educator, so
she did teach middle and high school high school just high school, yeah,
high school biology right, no environmental science. Yeah, so yeah, she
has she has a really great knack at working with kids and having those conversations
very easily and very very fluent, so which I mean, it's it can
be very sensitive just having those conversations about friendships and relationships and what healthy and
unhealthy relationships look like. So she's she's able to take those opportunities or take
those that time and really discuss it and kind of put it out in a
way that it's fun and sticks with them. I like the way this works
with with Ray of Hope and your outreach. Right, you're this is a
really good thing. And by talking to youngsters before they maybe even get involved
into the dating scenario, maybe we can get this nipped in the butt,
and that would just be an awesome thing. It would just be such an
awesome thing. It's actually fantastic. I did this presentation in Vietnam City School
District for their elementary school. They had been experiencing some quickiness with their elementary
aged students. I went and did the presentation and went off great. I
actually had a teacher email me afterwards, and you know, she said,
you know, you gave my students language to recognize the ways and they they
are being unhealthy to one another. So that really helped. It's a great
presentation. If any parents or any adult, any support person has any questions
about it, they're welcome to reach out to me. They're welcome to see
it. It really is great and it's informative, and it's just for the
purpose of education to prevent if we get ahold of you through Ray of Hope.
Absolutely, you can call our main line. You can email me.
It's yoseline at Ray of Hope ac dot org. And I'm sure all of
you can spell that just from hearing it phonetically. But yeah, if you'll
just give us a call nine one eight three three seven six one seven seven,
you can you can ask for me. Yeah, the phone still works
very much. Oh man, you've got a big spring ahead of you.
We're gonna do that thing in the park a little bit later on this break.
Yeah, they'll be doing Hope in the Park and April they haven't set
the date, but I know that they were working at the committee is working
on it right now. It'll be a one Sunday afternoon in mid to late
April, weather permitting. It is Oklahoma, we could get all four seasons
in one day. Yeah, we'll probably get it on that day. But
it's just a it's a great family afternoon for a picnic, come out for
games, different activities. It'll it'll be a great, great afternoon. Oh
man, it always is. No, I hadn't seen you tell just a
little bit ago after Ray of Hope, and that is one that is your
big fundraiser, and I understand the community really came out and in mass Yeah,
and this really turned out to be better than expected. Yeah. So
twenty twenty three Hops for Hope was one of the best years we've had.
For year fourteen, we were we were pretty pretty excited and pleased at how
well it turned out and just how much how great the attendance was. I
mean, I know that we had over seven hundred and fifty people attend,
so it was phenomenal. I'm telling that we had that we had we had
the building, the building busting and it seems but we had a great support,
great outpouring of support from the community, phenomenal Hops for Hope planning committee,
and just great people all around really jumping in to help support our cause.
Hops for Hope twenty four will be our fifteenth year, and it's November
two. We are actually having the first planning meeting for for the year next
week and it's a wedding happened. Crazy to think how how long it takes
to plan this, but this year with it being fifteen, it's fifteen and
fabulous, so kind of be on the lookout for new graphics and and all
the things. We're pretty excited about it. Well, I got to tell
you that it is one of the things that a lot of people look forward
to every fall. I mean, it's right you get past September, it's
like, okay, it's we're not gonna cook where, it's gonna be just
a nice afternoon. We're gonna go out to the hangar, we're gonna raise
money, and we're gonna make sure Ray Hope sticks around another couple. Yeah,
and that's what that's pretty much the sentiment of it. Well, and
then the next thing you know, you start running into friends, family,
neighbors and folks you haven't seen in a while. Yeah, and then and
then it gets then it gets going, especially in the silent auction piece.
That's when all the all the all the steaks are out, folks are bedding
against each other and just having a great time. Yeah, that's that's where
the fun is that it truly is. I want to thank you both for
being here with us today. And once again, what is your website Ray
of Hope ac dot org. Ray of Hope ac dot org and the fat
Lover that is nine one eight three three seven six one seven seven does it
like you mean? Oh? Yeah. I want to thank you both for
being involved with our community to the extent of you that you are, because
that is something that is truly something from the heart. It's not something for
the faint of heart. And thank you for being there for those who really,
really really need you, all right,