More than 1 in 3 women, 1 in 4 men and 1 in 2 trans or non-binary people will be in an abusive relationship in their lifetime. To help young people learn how to build healthy relationships and change these statistics, the One Love Foundation in partnership with The Allstate Foundation announced the launch of the Allstate Foundation Film Fellowship Program, designed to identify and support three young storytellers from diverse backgrounds, and their teams, in creating educational films on relationship health.
“Youth Tell Underrepresented Relationship Stories Through Short Films: One Love uses new Allstate Foundation grant to uplift People of Color and LGBTQ+ voices through youth-led film fellowship.”
The short films will be created and incorporated into One Love’s educational workshops which are utilized by schools and educators across the country. The three teams – led by LGBTQ+ and/or Black, Indigenous and People of Color filmmakers – will create short films over the next year to educate and empower hundreds of thousands of young people nationwide with the skills needed to build solid foundations for healthy relationships. Telling stories by young people and for young people is a powerful way to prevent unhealthy relationships from turning abusive. By providing a pathway for youth from underrepresented communities to create and tell stories about their own experiences and through their distinct perspective, this fellowship can shine a light on the unique ways in which unhealthy relationships manifest themselves.
“One Love and The Allstate Foundation are committed to providing young people with the education and resources to identify unhealthy relationship behaviors,” said One Love CEO Katie Hood. “We are truly grateful to The Allstate Foundation for investing in relationship health for all young people and are excited to build our own relationships with these talented filmmakers to uplift their unique perspectives on relationships.”
Recruitment of the fellowship teams will begin in March 2021. Each member will go through both One Love training and professional development led by industry experts before writing, producing, and filming their work from Spring to Fall 2021. The launch of the first fellow-produced educational workshop that features a fellow-produced film will take place in February 2022 in honor of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. The additional workshops will launch in August 2022 ahead of the 2022-2023 school year. Key elements in these film pieces may include signs of a healthy and unhealthy relationship, financial and emotional abuse, consent and boundary-setting, how to exit an unhealthy or abusive relationship, and more.
“Our commitment to breaking the cycle of violence has taught us that relationship violence can start at a young age,” said Francie Schnipke Richards, vice president of social responsibility at The Allstate Foundation. “We’re excited to team up with One Love to create new, engaging videos to help young people spot the signs of relationship abuse and help prevent unhealthy relationships before they start.”
To learn more about the One Love Foundation or to bring this education to your community, please visit joinonelove.org.
About The Allstate Foundation
The Allstate Foundation accelerates positive change by empowering and educating the most vulnerable, inspiring today’s visionaries and promoting community leadership. Since 2005, The Allstate Foundation has invested more than $70 million to help empower nearly 2 million domestic violence survivors with education and tools to achieve financial independence and build a life free from abuse.
About The One Love Foundation
The One Love Foundation is dedicated to improving the relationship health of future generations. The nonprofit organization has educated more than 1.3 million young people through educational workshops, both in-person and online, by teaching them the signs of unhealthy and healthy relationship behaviors. One Love was founded in honor of Yeardley Love, a 22-year-old college student whose life was tragically cut short when she was killed by her ex-boyfriend. Her family learned during the trial that her death could have been prevented had they recognized the signs of an abusive relationship. For more information, visit joinonelove.org.
