In a Relationship

In a Relationship is part of Campania Respectului (Speak out against Domestic Violence), a project created along with Friends for Friends Foundation and dedicated to Romanian young adults, that puts the light on a delicate and sensitive aspect of high school life: the first love relations– what makes them work and what destroys them. The project approached in a new manner, a subject that most of the times is not even recognized by the teenagers. The project team involved completely  the adolescents in creating the project and started with a research 100% carried out by high school students(16-19 years) that were recruited through a mechanism used for the first time in a project like this: „Active online and offline student, we offer you a one month job.” Starting this point, all the decisions have been based on teenagers’ feedback.

The project’s mission is to raise the awareness regarding the potential abuses in adolescents couple and to prevent the violence in high school, the seed of the later violence. In addition, the engagement of the teenagers has been tracked, their involvement in research and in the awareness activities.

In Romania, there are no studies addressing this topic, the researches conducted in this area target the abuse on children or the one that occurs among young students. That is why, while trying to understand how the couple relations work among the adolescents, it was a necessary and justifiable step to launch an informal survey that would attract responses from numerous adolescents and from different parts of Romania.

We have launched a contest for 10 „researcher” positions, open for all the Romanian adolescents aged 16-19 years. 10 jobs for one month, with a salary of 300 EUR for 10 high school students who, if selected, take over a research among their colleagues and friends about love relations in high school.

In two months we managed to reach, through the online survey, 1500 adolescents from 80 Romanian cities who openly spoke about things that probably have never been asked. In addition, 100 adolescents have been interviewed directly by the 10 researchers.

The study’s conclusions have been reunited in a Brochure dedicated to the adults. This brochure has been spread through media partnership, but also by AVON volunteers, part of the sales team, to parents and teachers from their teams. Some of AVON volunteers also organised meetings in highschools where they have spoken about the topic and distributed the campaigns materials.

A few figures

• 000 young adults reached (Adolescents Day)
• 000 people that interacted with the exhibition or with the team.
• Over 100.000 people exposed to the message (Events)
• 89 articles in national&international media generating 326.000 viewership
• 500 teenagers responded to the online survey
• 80 of the 270 who have not been selected as researches have chosen to be ambassadors in their communities and support the project
• The first study that offers relevant and insightful information regarding violence among adolescents.
• Over 300 teenagers have participated at debates and talks
• Over 1000 printed Brochures offered to adults The project has been received with such enthusiasm that numerous professionals have involved pro-bono: Cărturești Foundation& Summer Well Festival (free access as exhibitor), 10 artists (Street Delivery Mural), Creative teams Friends\TBWA & digital Friends\TBWA (initiators of Adolescents Day), Media supporters (IQads, Dissolved Magazine, Republica, Șapte Seri, SUB25, Rezidența Scena9, GoldFM, Radio Guerilla, Radio România Cultural, Elle România, Scena9, Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung.
• The biggest impact of the project is on the people involved in it, it meant a total change of perspective and a major step in their career: – 10 high school students, researchers: their first job. – 3 high school students in the team: photographer, video-artist, social media communicator. – 16 high school artists: their first exhibition, itinerant – 2 young artists: their first mural