Mary Kay Inc, loveisrespect and Everfi have partnered together to launch a Healthy Foundations program, which educates students on how to cultivate and maintain healthy relationships, according to a press release.
The first-of-its-kind digital program was introduced to students and educators at Martin Middle School in Austin, Texas on Nov. 16, during a school-wide assembly. The digital course presented evidence-based strategies to educate students on healthy relationships, including how to communicate and resolve conflict. Students participated in a panel discussion featuring domestic violence experts and advocates. Panel members included representatives from Mary Kay Inc., The National Domestic Violence Hotline, loveisrespect and the Austin Independent School District.
Students participated in a panel discussion featuring domestic violence experts and advocates. which included representatives from Mary Kay Inc., The National Domestic Violence Hotline, loveisrespect and the Austin Independent School District. The event also featured the unveiling of a “Don’t Look Away” mural developed by middle school students depicting the theme of healthy relationships, which will remain on display at Martin Middle School.
DIVERGE interviewed Kirsten Gappelberg, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, to get details:
Where did the idea for this program come from?
EverFi has relationships with schools across the United States and has implemented successful digital programs on other topics. They approached Mary Kay last year to see how we could partner. It was important to us that we bring experts in the domestic violence education and prevention field to the table before the program took shape. Mary Kay has partnered with loveisrespect for a number of years and we provide funding for their text for help service that provides young people with healthy dating and relationship support via text. They were instrumental in providing the necessary expertise to develop this platform and open the lines of communication about healthy relationships with young people.
Why is it important to Mary Kay?
Mary Kay has a long standing commitment to help bring an end to domestic violence. And, we know that in order to do that, we need to focus on prevention. To help end abuse before it starts, a dialogue about healthy dating and relationships needs to happen with young people.
What response/feedback have you gotten from this program?
Recently, we participated in a launch event at Marshall Middle School in Austin. The students were really excited. A number of them had already completed the program and the response was very positive. During the event, we invited students to speak in front of their peers about why they liked the program and I was impressed by how seriously the students were approaching the topic. It helped open the door to conversations about bullying, treating friends with appropriate levels of respect and appropriate dating behavior.
Will you be doing this in other cities?
We announced our partnership earlier this year with EverFi to provide the digital platform in Austin, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Los Angeles.
Can you talk more about ‘Don’t look away’?
Don’t Look Away encompasses all of Mary Kay’s work to end domestic violence. We believe that it’s important to provide support for individuals at all ages and stages in life. Mary Kay’s programs include resources for young children, adolescents, adults, advocates and domestic violence survivors. It’s our hope that we can move the needle for the 1 in 4 women who will experience abuse in her lifetime in the United States. The company’s history with this issue dates back to our founder, Mary Kay Ash. I have been told that she was instrumental in opening the doors of one of the first domestic violence shelters in Dallas and through the work of the Mary Kay Foundation that she established, Mary Kay provides $3 million in unrestricted grant funds to women’s shelters each year. To date, the Foundation and Mary Kay have donated more than $53 million in support towards ending and preventing domestic violence.
How important is diversity to Mary Kay as a company?
Mary Kay Ash founded the company on the Golden Rule and we still use this as one of our guiding principles today, treating all people with respect. Mary Kay believes that everyone deserves to be in a safe and healthy relationship.
Additional thoughts?
Education is at the heart of our business and the core of our company. We believe that education is one of the best resources we have to fight domestic violence. Mary Kay has some amazing video content on this topic that you might like to take a look at. Please visit www.marykay.com/dontlookaway to view some of our videos.
