Speaking Out

At the tender age of 18 with a bright future, Jennifer Ann Crecente was killed by her ex-boyfriend. This extremely painful experience has led Drew Crecente to speak out and fight for awareness in teen dating violence with a nonprofit organization called Jennifer Ann Memorial Group, Inc. With some perseverance, this devoted father has managed to mass produce a free Educational Card about Teen Dating Violence explaining the warning signs and how to get help. Cards are sent to schools and the staff make them available to students. He has managed, on his own, to send out over 170,000 of these cards to high schools all across the United States. Impressive.
(Order here if you want to request cards for your local schools.)

I am honored to say that Drew and Jennifer are part of the program and will have a portrait created for the Bravery Project.

In our conversation, we spoke about how Jennifer never talked about her stalker or any of the distress she was under. With a good relationship between parent and teen, it must be baffling to think "why didn't she say something?" One prominent reason is the shame and embarrassment of admitting to someone, especially a parent who is loved and respected.

Silence is dangerous. Dangerous for the person who suffers and dangerous for the community who ignores the symptoms. There is more awareness about domestic violence than ever before, but getting people to talk about it is a different story, let alone DO something about it.

Below are two videos: The first is an Australian commercial that is a perfect example of apathy as an accomplice. The second is an interview with Patrick Stewart. You will recognize him as Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek the Next Generation hit TV series. His interview was done for Amnesty International, but speaks to all of us about personal experience of a boy growing up with domestic violence with hope for the future.