WEBVTT

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Good money, good morning, good
morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.

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It is time now for our community
connection right here on K one,

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the one you trust, and we
got some nice rays of sunshine, but

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we also have some wonderful ways of
hope in our studio today. Hey Ben,

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hey guy, ye how you doing
doing well? How are you?

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Dylan's wonderful? I do believe.
Wow, we've got The month of February

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is flying by. Yes, Wow, where did it go? I have

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no idea, I think before we
know what we're going to be at the

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end of twenty four. Oh yeah, indeed. But you know, February

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is the month of romance. It's
a time where people send their a little

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Valentine's and pledge their undying love and
affection for others. But it's also a

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time to kind of keep the antenna
up, especially with young people. Dating

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is a new process for young people. Well okay, it's a new process

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for old people too. You know, they haven't been at it for a

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while. But they just don't know
everything. They can't know everything. They're

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yell, got any advice, Well, so for a friank because I got

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some shits. Yeah, So February
is team dating Violence Awareness Month. That's

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kind of what brings us in today, and we just wanted to kind of

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talk about it and some of the
statistics around teen dating violence. And then

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one of the trainings that we offer
at Rate of Hope that our wonderful the

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COC has she's the lead instructor for
and it does a fantastic job by sharing

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it in our communities. Wow,
tell us a little bit about what's going

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on. Yeah, So, as
been said, in twenty ten, Congress

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declared February teen dayating Violence Awareness Month. So we're kind of just bringing awareness

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out there. I do a training. I'm certified in it. It's not

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just me going on the internet,
you know, looking out random facts.

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But it's a one love curriculum.
It was started by a parent whose daughter,

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your lead love, actually passed away
due to teen dating violence. So

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you know, that's kind of an
extreme, but it's something that we want

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to prevent because actually one in five
women and one in seven men who experience

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teen dating violence in their youth,
so that's thirteen to seventeen actually go on

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to experience intimate partner violence later on
in their life. So if we can

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stop that cycle, we definitely want
to do. So, wow, we

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that is something that's a change that's
got to be broken, right, It's

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got to be broken right now,
it, I guess, because you know,

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we all come from different backgrounds,
different dynamics and stuff like that,

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what is acceptable and what is not
acceptable sometimes rolls into different areas just depending

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on your environment. Absolutely, is
that the big factor. Yeah, I

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mean one hundred percent of us are
in relationships one hundred percent of the time.

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So while there are some cultural aspects
to it, there are definitely things

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that are red flags and absolute lo
nos across the board. Then that's something

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that we touch on in the training
flags. So some of the red flags

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that we have are volatility, like
getting angry quickly is how I like to

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explain it to the children, you
know, to the kids, to the

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young teens, kind of like a
volcano it ERPs out of nowhere. We

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have possessiveness and isolation. It's crazy
how quickly you see isolation, even in

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younger children. How those things play
out. And then not respecting boundaries,

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which is a huge one. One
I don't care where you are. I

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don't care you have to be a
dating thing. Yeah, no, and

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it's not. And one of the
great things about the One Love Curriculum is

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that I can also offer it to
grade school age children in forms of friendships.

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Yeah, I mean, it's a
great way to kind of not to

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take away from teen dating violence,
but to kind of start talking about relationships

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and friendships. It does lean more
towards bullying, but it's a great way

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to realize that you deserve respecting one
hundred percent of your relationships. You do.

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Yeah, Ben, you surround yourself
with some pretty smart people. I

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gotta tell you, I do.
I do. I'm very very grateful for

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that. Now with a Ray of
Hope, tell us a little bit about

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I mean, we know that we're
working together here, but you kind of

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get the hard part as far as
turning things around and getting people into the

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right direction, right, because sometimes
turning things around is an undertaking. It

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definitely is so Ray of Hope.
We are a nonprofit here in Bartlesville that

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we are a child advocacy and a
domestic violence resource center. Along with those

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those resources, we're also able to
provide trainings and those kinds of things in

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our community, which is great.
But yeah, absolutely, and that's what

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a lot of it is is.
It's prevention and education through just through our

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child advocacy side, we're able to
help families and children kind of begin the

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healing process after some type of child
abuse, neglect, those kinds of things.

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Uh, And then also on our
domestic violence side, we're able to

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help with counseling, court advocacy,
emergency protective orders, even just emergency emergency

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housing, helping folks kind of just
get out of dodge, find a way

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to find a safe place because that
situation that they may be and maybe extremely

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unsafe and there they've decided it's time
to go. So we're able to really

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step in and kind of help help
in those moments. We also offer free

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in house counseling and we've we've got
a lot going on going on. Our

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agency is we're growing and so that's
that's another thing. So if anybody is

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looking for looking for a un employment
opportunity, we are hiring for a court

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advocate. So which is it's a
pretty big job that yeah, oh great,

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there you go. You know the
thing, I've known people who've done

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these court advocacy Yeah, and it's
not a job for them, it's their

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passion and you know, they kind
of wear the heart on the sleeve there

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too, but they keep things in
check because they know they have to advocate

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passionately for the client, but they
also have to make sure that they over

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east ye and everything. Getting back
to a teen dating violence awareness one with

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teens, this is also new.
I mean, here you are, you're

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thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old. You just got done thinking that you

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know, other people don't have cooties, and you get into that and it's

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like, I got all these feelings, but I don't have any kind of

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direction here a little bit of help, and you're not going to ask mom

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and dad. Well, sometimes you
do, but not very often. And

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this is where things kind of go
around with the kids. They don't ask

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enough questions. Is that is that
pretty much yet? Yeah? I have

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found, thankfully that the environment that
I put out during these presentations is pretty

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open, so I do get random
questions, which is great because I want

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the teens and the young adults to
feel safe in the space. I have

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had parents attend these sessions, like
just sit in on them, and it

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doesn't discourage questions, which is great
because having other you know, like classmates

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or peers ask questions really facilitates it
for me because kids aren't afraid to ask,

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So that's good. They used to
be. Yeah, they're not so

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afraid anymore. Like if this were
going on in the nineteen sixties when I

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was a kid, Oh yeah,
Okay, First of all, I wouldn't

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be asking my parents a whole lot
because I couldn't even figure out how they

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got together, Right, what do
you want to go there? I can't

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even imagine them as teenagers. Okay, but now you know, I think

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the kids are a lot more aware. There's real, yes, a lot

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more understanding of this, that and
the other. But it also makes your

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job a little easier when they're so
open with the questions, the longer for

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that knowledge they really do. They're
actually I've seen with the kids that I've

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presented to, even in the elementary
age range, they're very emotionally aware of

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things. I don't know what that's
a testament or a result of, but

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it does facilitate things. And also, I don't know if you know this

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about this, but this about me, but I'm actually really funny. So

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it kind of like lightens the mood
and it opens up for children to and

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she said, I looked like my
priest. Yes, laugh a minute.

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I do, look like you do. I do. And you know s

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also has a great gift with kids. She is a past educator, so

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she did teach middle and high school
high school just high school, yeah,

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high school biology right, no environmental
science. Yeah, so yeah, she

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has she has a really great knack
at working with kids and having those conversations

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very easily and very very fluent,
so which I mean, it's it can

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be very sensitive just having those conversations
about friendships and relationships and what healthy and

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unhealthy relationships look like. So she's
she's able to take those opportunities or take

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those that time and really discuss it
and kind of put it out in a

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way that it's fun and sticks with
them. I like the way this works

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with with Ray of Hope and your
outreach. Right, you're this is a

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really good thing. And by talking
to youngsters before they maybe even get involved

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into the dating scenario, maybe we
can get this nipped in the butt,

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and that would just be an awesome
thing. It would just be such an

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awesome thing. It's actually fantastic.
I did this presentation in Vietnam City School

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District for their elementary school. They
had been experiencing some quickiness with their elementary

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aged students. I went and did
the presentation and went off great. I

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actually had a teacher email me afterwards, and you know, she said,

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you know, you gave my students
language to recognize the ways and they they

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are being unhealthy to one another.
So that really helped. It's a great

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presentation. If any parents or any
adult, any support person has any questions

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about it, they're welcome to reach
out to me. They're welcome to see

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it. It really is great and
it's informative, and it's just for the

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purpose of education to prevent if we
get ahold of you through Ray of Hope.

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Absolutely, you can call our main
line. You can email me.

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It's yoseline at Ray of Hope ac
dot org. And I'm sure all of

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you can spell that just from hearing
it phonetically. But yeah, if you'll

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just give us a call nine one
eight three three seven six one seven seven,

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you can you can ask for me. Yeah, the phone still works

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very much. Oh man, you've
got a big spring ahead of you.

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We're gonna do that thing in the
park a little bit later on this break.

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Yeah, they'll be doing Hope in
the Park and April they haven't set

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the date, but I know that
they were working at the committee is working

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on it right now. It'll be
a one Sunday afternoon in mid to late

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April, weather permitting. It is
Oklahoma, we could get all four seasons

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in one day. Yeah, we'll
probably get it on that day. But

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it's just a it's a great family
afternoon for a picnic, come out for

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games, different activities. It'll it'll
be a great, great afternoon. Oh

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man, it always is. No, I hadn't seen you tell just a

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little bit ago after Ray of Hope, and that is one that is your

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big fundraiser, and I understand the
community really came out and in mass Yeah,

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and this really turned out to be
better than expected. Yeah. So

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twenty twenty three Hops for Hope was
one of the best years we've had.

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For year fourteen, we were we
were pretty pretty excited and pleased at how

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well it turned out and just how
much how great the attendance was. I

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mean, I know that we had
over seven hundred and fifty people attend,

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so it was phenomenal. I'm telling
that we had that we had we had

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the building, the building busting and
it seems but we had a great support,

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great outpouring of support from the community, phenomenal Hops for Hope planning committee,

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and just great people all around really
jumping in to help support our cause.

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Hops for Hope twenty four will be
our fifteenth year, and it's November

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two. We are actually having the
first planning meeting for for the year next

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week and it's a wedding happened.
Crazy to think how how long it takes

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to plan this, but this year
with it being fifteen, it's fifteen and

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fabulous, so kind of be on
the lookout for new graphics and and all

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the things. We're pretty excited about
it. Well, I got to tell

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you that it is one of the
things that a lot of people look forward

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to every fall. I mean,
it's right you get past September, it's

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like, okay, it's we're not
gonna cook where, it's gonna be just

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a nice afternoon. We're gonna go
out to the hangar, we're gonna raise

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money, and we're gonna make sure
Ray Hope sticks around another couple. Yeah,

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and that's what that's pretty much the
sentiment of it. Well, and

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then the next thing you know,
you start running into friends, family,

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neighbors and folks you haven't seen in
a while. Yeah, and then and

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then it gets then it gets going, especially in the silent auction piece.

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That's when all the all the all
the steaks are out, folks are bedding

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against each other and just having a
great time. Yeah, that's that's where

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the fun is that it truly is. I want to thank you both for

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being here with us today. And
once again, what is your website Ray

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of Hope ac dot org. Ray
of Hope ac dot org and the fat

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Lover that is nine one eight three
three seven six one seven seven does it

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like you mean? Oh? Yeah. I want to thank you both for

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being involved with our community to the
extent of you that you are, because

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that is something that is truly something
from the heart. It's not something for

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the faint of heart. And thank
you for being there for those who really,

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really really need you, all right,