If students are unsure if they or someone they know is in a healthy relationship, the One Love Foundation can help.
The One Love Foundation teaches people, mainly college students, the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships and educates them on how to cope with unhealthy ones.
One Love was created in 2010 after University of Virginia student Yeardley Love was beaten to death by her ex-boyfriend. Her family created One Love to honor her memory and create awareness for domestic violence. The foundation has created different escalation workshops for college campus’ to hold open discussions about relationships between college students on campus.
Southern New Hampshire University’s (SNHU) Women’s Center Director Brooke Gilmore is bringing these workshops to SNHU’s campus. As of now, each workshop is held solely based off of request. Earlier this semester, Gilmore held the first workshop for Resident Assistants (RA) on campus.
“I was able to do a version of the workshop for our RA training this January, and we have a couple more coming up. One is for the Signature Leader program and one is for PALS,” said Gilmore.
The workshops include a 30 to 45 minute video on a given topic followed by an open and honest Q & A discussion. The workshop for RA’s was received with positive feedback from both male and female students. Other students who may want to join a workshop, but is not associated with one of the organizations, can make a request on their own.
“If a student, group or department, or just a group of students, wants to participate, they can just reach out and let us know,” Gilmore said.
The One Love Foundation is meant to provide students with a safe opportunity to discuss difficult and often triggering subjects. Having the tools to understand healthy and unhealthy relationships is important, and many students are unaware of the resources available to them. One Love will provide students with adequate resources to relieve stress and anxiety associated with relationships.
“I think there should always be more awareness, and I think we definitely live in a time where people have greater access to other people more than ever before with texting and social media and just being in constant contact, but sometimes that’s not always healthy,” says Gilmore.
To attend a workshop reach out to SNHU’s Women’s Center, or to find out more information about the foundation go to www.joinonelove.org.
