Louisville J-Serve is usually confined to the teens of the Jewish community, but this year it was opened up to all teens in Metro Louisville. Thanks to Rabbi Dr. Nadia Siritsky, vice president of mission at KentuckyOne Health, Louisville BBYO was able to come in contact and work together with another local youth group, Pact In Action. Their mission is to equip youth with the necessary skills and knowledge to reduce teen dating violence. Together we created an event to educate teenagers about healthy relationship: how to identify unhealthy relationships and how to ensure your relationships are healthy.
The coordinators, Brandon Fant, Abigail Goldberg, Dahabo Kerow and myself visited each other’s groups at an event. Through this we were able to incorporate a piece of each group’s traditions and include them in J-Serve. Through months of planning we created a rotation based afternoon, covering what we want in a relationship or partner, when it is time to leave a relationship, and the difference between domestic violence and intimate partner violence along with what each one looks like.
Along with meeting amazing new friends, teens leaving this event were left equipped with life skills that can be applied in any future setting. This event was held thanks to the generous support of J-Serve and Kentucky One Health.
