NCYL is excited to be teaming up with The Family Violence Prevention Fund on their new violence prevention initiative, Project Connect. Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health, the Project will develop new ways to identify, respond to, and prevent domestic and sexual violence, and promote an improved public health response to abuse.

To support this initiative, NCYL will be creating state-specific legal guides that describe the confidentiality and reporting obligations of health care providers when they find out a teen patient has been or may have been subject to dating violence.  The first round of manuals should be available by September 2010 and will address the laws in Arizona, California, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio.
 
NCYL has produced similar manuals in the past, including manuals that describe confidentiality and child abuse reporting laws for Title X providers in a number of states. Those manuals are available here. 

 
The Family Violence Prevention Fund is a national nonprofit working to end violence against women and children around the world. Instrumental in developing the landmark Violence Against Women Act passed by Congress in 1994, the organization promotes leadership within communities to ensure that violence prevention efforts become self-sustaining, and educates health care providers, police, judges, employers, and others about effective ways to address violence.