About Us
The Institute for Relationship Intelligence is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting healthy relationships and stronger families/communities through educational and cultural activities.
The Institute for Relationship Intelligence reaches urban & suburban youth in NY/NJ with messages of healthy relationships, self-leadership and service to others. In the last decade, I.R.I. has reached more than 100,000 youth, helping them to focus on achieving their future dreams and avoiding the traps that could endanger their lives and goals!
Participants Engaged in 2009 - 2010
• 8,050 Middle School & High School students
• 52 High Schools and Middle Schools
• 214 youth at 12 after-school Club Sites
• 1,927 Parents Educated
• 5,223 sent "Relationships101" emails each week
----------------------------------
“Medically accurate, in conformance with public health principles and policies, and appropriate for the intended audience.”
-National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
“One of the top three curricula on relationships and marriage in the country!”
-Institute for American Values
“Too many teens don’t value themselves. RIT’s message is absolutely important for students to hear!” -AW, 7th & 8th grade teacher, PS16, Jersey City, NJ
----------------------------------
Since 1998 when the Institute for Relationship Intelligence began to offer educational and after-school youth development programs in Jersey City and Paterson, birth rates among unmarried 10-19 year-olds in Jersey City dropped by 36% and in Paterson by 28% (1998 level compared with 2001 to 2008). In demographically similar Elizabeth, Plainfield and Passaic City, which had no risk-avoidance classroom education, the reductions were only 8%. Overall, births to unmarried girls ages 10-19 in New Jersey dropped 17%.2
Relationship Intelligence Training Education Saves Taxpayers MILLIONS
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy has estimated that teen childbearing costs in New Jersey cost NJ taxpayers $3.3 billion over a 14 year period, or $27,341 per birth.3 The average 15% extra reduction in teen births in Jersey City and Paterson (above the statewide average reduction of 17%) contributed to by intensive RIT healthy relationship/risk-avoidance education (1,318 of 2,636 less births from 2001- 2008) has resulted in a projected savings of $ 36,035,438 in federal, state and local expenditures for public health care, child welfare, incarceration and lost tax revenue over a 14 year period.
1. Report for NJ Department of Health prepared by Dr. Joseph Donnelly, Montclair State University.
2. http://njshad.doh.state.nj.us/birmunage1220.html for 2001-2005.
For 2006 - 2008 data, http://www4.state.nj.us/dhss-shad/query/builder/birth/BirthBirthCnty/Count.html.
3. http://teenpregnancy.org/costs/tables.asp
*********************
Community/ Regional Affiliations
The Institute for Relationship Intelligence works closely with numerous school districts in NY and NJ including the Jersey City, Bayonne and Paterson School Districts in New Jersey and the Mt. Vernon and Newburgh School Districts in New York, as well as many others. It works closely with the Jersey City Community That Cares Coalition, Partners in Prevention, the Paterson Healthy Mothers Healthy
Babies Coalition and the Paterson Alliance.
4 Stages of Relationship Intelligence Training
Stage One: Relationship Intelligence Training
Presentations & Workbook Activities
The Relationship Intelligence Training powerpoint presentation (available in Spanish & 8 other languages) is used to reach teens about choices and consequences in achieving a successful life as well as the risks posed to future goals by teen sex, alcohol and drug use. Medical facts and real life stories about people who became infected with HIV or other STDS are presented and discussed. Students are asked to clarify their future dreams and life goals. Other topics include dating, refusal skills, dealing with media and peer pressure, discovering self-worth through helping others, and the benefits of healthy marriages, including better physical and mental health, better sex, higher income and better outcomes for children.
Roleplaying of refusal skills & participatory learning using the Free Teens and Relationship Intelligence student workbooks help students to internalize the ideas being presented and apply them to their own lives.
Stage Two: After-school Free Teens Clubs
Teens who have completed Relationship Intelligence Training are invited to join an after-school program that meets at 12 locations in NY/NJ throughout the year. The Relationship Intelligence curriculum is used as the basis for weekly teen discussions in club meetings. Members also participate in Community Service Projects. At the annual year-end banquet club members are honored for keeping their commitments and for contributions to their communities.
Stage Three: Parent Training in
“Guiding Your Child through the Teen Years”
These workshops are designed to motivate parents to take an active part in guiding their children to focus on their future goals and avoiding high-risk behaviors. The program is designed to give parents the information and skills they need to confidently communicate with their children on these topics! Interested parents can join the Free Teens Village Advisory Council to create events that increase community support for the message of healthy relationships.
Stage Four: Free Teens Media Institute and
CultureMachine Activities
Through the Free Teens Media Institute, teens who have come to think more critically about culture in the light of their personal goals and ideals are trained to communicate through one or more or the following media: 1). Video production; 2). Theater; 3). Music; 4). Visual arts; 5) photojournalism, 6). Dance/Performance; and 7) Poetry/Spoken Word. Teen performance groups spread the message of healthy man-woman relationships through theater and dance in New York and New Jersey. CultureShock teams visit schools in New York and New Jersey and work with student musicians to write and record music containing positive messages.
Teen-created songs and videos are posted on CultureMachine.com and included in interactive CultureMachine iMagazine CD-ROMs distributed to teens around the country.
In 2010, a musical, IMANI: a Daughter’s Story, was created. This powerful and uplifting musical deals with universal issues of trust and the need for communication between parents and their teenage children. ******************
Its two signature projects are:
Free Teens youth development program
Since 1998, Free Teens has reached more than 100,000 youth and 10,000 parents in the NY/NJ area with education about self-leadership and healthy relationships. (www.FreeTeensYouth.com),
CultureMachine project, which teaches young artists to write, produce and distribute their own music, movies and media messages. Since 2003, CultureMachine has helped more than 1,000 students in the NYC and NJ area to express their talents and creativity through its annual Teen Media Summit and Music Production workshops. (www.CultureMachine.com)
For more information, contact
Institute for Relationship Intelligence
P.O. Box 97, Westwood, NJ 07675
info@lovesmarts.org or 201-488-3733.
Donors & Supporters of Free Teens USA
Our Deepest Appreciation to Supporters of Free Teens USA!
Free Teens USA would like to thank the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families for grants supporting its healthy relationship education for youth from 2002- 2010.
Free Teens USA would like to thank its foundation donors!
Bodman Foundation
Van Houten Memorial Fund
Provident Bank Foundation
Young Jin Moon Foundation
Free Teens USA would like to thank its corporate donors!
Christian Bernard Inc.
GEM Century
Goad Realty Services Corporation
Ki Delicia Brazilian Specialty Foods
ReMax New Millenium Group
EYAL Corporation
Free Teens USA would like to thank its Cornerstone 300 Donors including:
Heather Partis, Gregg & Elke Noll, Rosmena De Sa, Elvin Javier, Mauricio & Connie Pereira, Keiichi Matsumura, John Hessell, Andrew & Solange Weiss, Brigitte Goodall-Reid
Free Teens USA would like to thank its private donors including:
Robin & Patricia Graham, Nicholas & Keiko Farah, Michael & Sylvia Lima, Dr. Welton Sawyer, and many, many others!
Please consider becoming a partner with Free Teens USA in supporting youth! To contact us, call 201-488-3733 (FREE) or email info@freeteensusa.org.
For more information about Free Teens activities for youth in northern NJ and in New York, visit FreeTeensYouth.com.
Additional Links:
Download the FT 09 Fact Sheet
Free Teens 990 Tax Return for 2008
Notable Free Teens USA practices
|
