Dating Violence Among Youth Turns Deadly, Texans Awarded for Action
AUSTIN, Texas (Jan. 30, 2025) — In observance of National Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month this February, the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) is recognizing two individuals and one organization for their advocacy against teen dating violence in Texas. Following the release of TCFV’s 2023 Honoring Texas Victims Report, in which the deaths of 10 Texans 19 years old or younger are detailed, TCFV says educating young people about healthy relationships is more important than ever for the future of our state.
“It is a sad and unacceptable blight on Texas’s narrative when a young life is lost to dating violence. Dating violence is often the result of young people being exposed to this violence in their own household and of cultural attitudes that do not value respect in relationships. But if we can instill healthy relationship behaviors in our youth, we can change this narrative,” said TCFV’s Prevention Director Roy Rios.
Between 2017-2023, TCFV found that more than 60 youths ages 13-19 were killed by a partner or former partner in Texas. The nonprofit also cites 70% of women who experience intimate partner violence experience it for the first time before the age of 25, making an individual’s formative dating experiences particularly vulnerable and significant. According to a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 12 high school students experienced physical dating violence.
“Let’s keep two things top of mind this year. One, youth are always watching and are heavily influenced by what they see. Just imagine what a radical shift we could see in young relationships if more Texas adults committed to demonstrating healthy behaviors in their own relationships. Two, preventing violence begins by talking about it. Silence is simply too costly. That’s why the Texas Council on Family Violence is honored to present the dating violence prevention awards to three Texans who are challenging their communities to speak up,” Rios adds.
In addition to the 2025 prevention awards, TCFV is looking to create safer environments for youth via the 89th Texas Legislative Session. For two decades, the Texas Education Code has required implementation of dating violence policies in districts, but these have yet to come to fruition in many Texas districts. TCFV is proposing a measure that would ensure school districts address such policies in their district improvement plans. The policies addressed would include notifying a teen survivor’s parents of dating violence incidents first – and notifying the perpetrator’s parents second – and offering resources and time for safety planning for the youth and their family.
Texas Partner for Change Award: Hope Rise Thrive
The 2024 Texas Partner for Change Award recognizes organizations whose partnership and efforts have given voice to violence prevention and inspired systemic change across Texas. The award will be presented to Hope Rise Thrive, a Waco-based organization that envisions a world where survivors of domestic violence are fully seen, heard and supported.
It was founded by Rev. Geneece Goertzen-Morrison – a survivor of more than two decades of domestic violence. As Rev. Gen’s story goes, her local family violence shelter was mass mailing a brochure about domestic violence that ended up in her mailbox and helped opened her eyes to what was happening in her life.

After escaping abuse, she dealt with years of ongoing stalking and harassment from her ex-husband. She then committed to going back to school and graduated with a Master of Divinity and Master of Social Work, which she put to use serving others experiencing domestic violence.
“As a community practice social worker, I believe that collaboration, partnerships and building bridges between those in need and those in positions to help are vital to end violence. I couldn’t recognize red flags in relationships as a young person because I was never taught to recognize them or how to step away from harmful relationships. We must educate younger audiences about the dangers on dating violence – not just physical, but also emotional and verbal aggression as well,” Rev. Gen says.
A large portion of Rev. Gen’s efforts have focused on the intersection of faith and domestic violence. Her research, which started as a grad student and continues today in her current PhD studies, aims to discover how faith communities respond to disclosure of domestic violence, and how that response impacts the disclosing survivor’s journey to healing. Knowing many survivors turn to their faith communities for assistance in such situations, Rev. Gen says it’s a crucial intersection to know more about. It’s why she authored Taking it Seriously: A Faith Leader’s Guide to Domestic Violence.
Rev. Gen is also author of Never Ever After: How Recognizing Red Flags in Relationships Can Save You a Whole Lot of Grief, and she hosts a podcast called Rise Again with Rev. Gen where she shares lessons from her experience, updates on her latest research and chats with other survivors and advocates.
“I am incredibly honored and grateful to receive this award from the Texas Council on Family Violence. Since my children and I escaped domestic violence, I have worked hard to advocate for others in similar situations. I hope that Hope Rise Thrive is an invaluable resource people can trust to provide quality education on the subject of family violence across the lifespan,” she says.
Activist of the Year Award: Teagan House
Teagan House graduated from Northside ISD in San Antonio in 2024, but not before leaving a legacy among her peers and even the faculty at her high school.
When House was a junior, she interned at the Kendall County Women’s Shelter where she quickly realized she had a passion for helping survivors of violence access the tools they need to find freedom, safety and healing from abuse. After witnessing the prevalence of violence in her community via her internship, she created an anonymous survey designed to find out if this violence was prevalent in her own school.
Through her survey, which solicited 100 responses from her fellow students, she found that 42% of respondents’ partners had exhibited controlling behavior which isolated the victim from their family and friends, 38% had been pressured or forced into performing a sexual act with their romantic partner, 45% had been gaslighted, and 67% had been sent an unsolicited and unwanted explicit image or text message.
“While I was unsurprised by the results, I knew that adults would need to hear this. This told me my friends were suffering and in danger, and I was not willing to just accept it with a ‘Well, I guess this is normal for teens’ kind of attitude,” House recalls.
House took the findings to a school counselor but encountered red tape around discussing dating violence on campus due to school policies around child anti-victimization.
“Through conversations with classmates, teachers, government officials, attorneys, survivors and psychiatrists, I found the key to ending cycles of abuse was having hard conversations. I was done letting the complicated subject of dating violence get swept under the rug simply because it was a touchy subject,” House says.
A year later, House says she is aware that members of the Youth Advisory Council for the Family Violence Prevention Services in San Antonio are continuously refining and distributing versions of her original survey to more youth in the area.
“That’s what we need – young people keeping dating violence in the spotlight. For everyone else, if you have the trust of a young person, please talk to them about healthy relationships. Dating violence thrives in silence, but speaking out about personal experiences, asking difficult questions and showing support for one another can stop violence in its tracks,” said House.
House is currently a freshman at The University of Texas at Austin studying business, where she fills her free time serving with student ministries and meeting with local high school students every week. She will receive TCFV’s Activist of the Year Award at the Capitol in Austin for being a driving force for social change among her peers and significantly elevating awareness of teen dating violence in her community.
Advocate of the Year Award: Kiawa Chambers
Kiawa Chambers is a community trainer for First Step, Inc.,the domestic violence and rape crisis center in Wichita Falls. In her role, she helps educate the Wichita Falls community about domestic violence and how to end the cycle of abuse so future generations can experience healthy relationships.
“One of my favorite parts of my position is building relationships with community members all over the 12 counties we serve. I want survivors of violence to know there are people around them who want to help them through the difficulties they are experiencing. We want to build a safer Texas for those who inhabit it now and for those who are to come,” Chambers explains.
Chambers also works directly with abusers who have used violence in the past. She helps them journey through the Batterer Intervention and Prevention Program (BIPP), which addresses the root issues that lead to relationship violence while teaching participants healthy relationship habits and ways to deal with disputes.
But one of her proudest moments invovles the younger generation in her community. In 2024, Chambers organized a special event for Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. Acting on behalf of First Step, Inc., she partnered with local high schools to have seniors particiapte in a video where they talked about teen dating violence. The response to the video was overwhelming, Chambers says.
“Never underestimate the power of a young person’s voice, and never discredit their experience. After we showed that video, the floor opened up for free-flowing conversation and questions. It was one of the most effective discussions I’ve ever witnessed,” Chambers smiles.
Bringing light to teen dating violence is particularly important to Chambers because she did not get the chance to learn about it in school. She says she regrets that her school did not educate students about healthy versus unhealthy relationships. In fact, the first time she truly had a conversation on the topic was in a college classroom while attending Midwestern State University. It was then she realized how important it was to drag this topic out of the darkness and into everyday discussions.
Today, Chambers aspires to model every day after her own hero – her mother – by using compassion, strength and resilience as a means to serve others experiencing domestic or dating violence.
Chambers will receive TCFV’s Advocate of the Year Award for being an adult ally who partners with young people to prevent dating violence and to make access to prevention programming more accessible.
About the Texas Council on Family Violence
The Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) is the only 501(c) 3 nonprofit coalition in Texas dedicated solely to creating safer communities and freedom from family violence. With a state-wide reach and direct local impact, TCFV, with the collective strength of more than 1,300 members, shapes public policy, equips service providers, and initiates strategic prevention efforts. Visit us online at https://tcfv.org/.