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Lee Conlee House

Prevention

Putnam Against Dating Violence (PADV) Community Action Team

If you or someone you know has been violated by domestic or sexual abuse, please contact us to help.

Prevention

Our prevention services offer programs teaching ways to deal with violence. Through prevention programs, which concentrates on skills for defending against violence, to curriculum-based programs, such as Safe Dates, which focuses on violence among youth and supporting youth in making positive decisions about their lives and their futures.

Our Goal

To educate the community about domestic, dating, and sexual violence and motivate community members to take individual and collective action to stop violence against women. Our group is made up of people from the community who are interested in educating people on violence and its impact not only in people’s personal lives but on the community as a whole. We focus our work within the community on the four factors of the social-ecological model in order to have the greatest impact in Putnam County: 

  • Individual
  • Relationship
  • Community
  • Societal 

For more info »

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Our Mission


To impact the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of all individuals residing in Putnam County on the issue of domestic and sexual violence.


Juvenile Diversion Program


This program focuses on at-risk youth and youth that have already had contact with the criminal justice system. Program participants are referred by courts, probation, school officials, parents, and law enforcement officers. This 8 session program can be used as an alternative to harsher sentencing. The program seeks to help youth develop self-worth and discipline. The program also focuses on prevention strategies that offer youth and their parents skills for developing healthy relationships and better problem solving, through violence prevention education, counseling, and cultural awareness classes. Juveniles must attend and complete all 8 classes.

(Coming Soon) Youth Against Domestic/Dating Violence (YADV)


(Coming Soon) Youth Against Domestic/Dating Violence (YADV)
YADV is a leadership development program for middle and high school youth. Select youth attend quarterly training conferences where they are taught how to create and organize violence prevention programs/activities on their campuses. YADV enlists selected participants from all over Putnam County; youth receive intensive training and mentoring process to equip them to become skilled youth advocates for positive social change. Youth selected for this program represent the broad spectrum of diverse communities within the area. Positive social activism is a critical tool for reducing violence on a community and institutional level. Lee Conlee is committed to training the next generation of leaders in the battle against violence and in promoting positive social action and justice. YADV has worked in diverse areas including designing social marketing campaigns and Public Service Announcements, advocacy for anti-violence legislation and school policy, and organizing youth conferences designed to educate young people on healthy, violence-free lifestyles. This program is graciously supported by individual donors and grants from the Florida Coalition of Domestic Violence (FCADV).

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Calendar Events

Myths & Realities About Domestic Violence

Myth: A slap never hurt anyone

Reality: Domestic violence has nothing to do with a single isolated incident. Domestic violence can occur over a period of many years and becomes more frequent as time goes on. Physical injuries result in many women being hospitalized. This violence can lead to death; over one-third of all the murders in America take place between family members. Constant beating is also emotionally damaging and can lead to low self-esteem, little or no self-worth and little self-confidence.

Myth: Abused people are masochistic. They enjoy it or they would not stay in the relationship.

Reality: It is very difficult to leave an abusive relationship. Women may be reluctant to leave for a complex set of factors such as shame, economic dependence, insecurity about supporting their children alone, love or concern for the abuser. She may have to give up her home, her possessions, her work or her friends. When a woman does leave, it does not guarantee that she is safe. Abusers will often go to great lengths to trace their spouse or girlfriend in order to continue the abuse.

Myth: Abuse is restricted to poorly educated families from lower socioeconomic classes.

Reality: Abuse is found in every level of society. Survivors of different races or ethnicity all experience the same rate of battering. High school graduates and women with some college education have the highest rates of battering. Women in cities, suburbs, and rural areas all experience the same rate of abuse.

Myth: Domestic Violence is more/less common in heterosexual relationships than it is in LGBT relationships. Only heterosexual women are battered.

Reality: Based on several studies in the early 1990s, partner abuse occurs in 25-33% of LGBT relationships, which is roughly equal to prevalence of heterosexual domestic violence.

Myth: Domestic violence is a crime committed by men against women only.

Reality: We often think of abuse as only physical, and often males don’t experience outright physical abuse from their female abusers. To be sure, most survivors of domestic violence are female, but according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 15% of their callers are male victims.