David Tubiolo; and Ailsa Gilliam, founder of SheroHub.
Legislator David Tubiolo, chairman of the Westchester County Board of Legislators’ Committee on Seniors and Constituencies, recently hosted Ailsa Gilliam, founder of SheroHub, a Westchester-based women’s empowerment hub featuring educational video games and other technology solutions; and Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden, the county’s Youth Bureau director, to discuss the importance of domestic violence awareness.
SheroHub is a Westchester-based women’s empowerment hub featuring educational video games and other technology solutions. It was launched in July 2018 to effect positive social transformation around the prevention of, and response to, domestic violence.
According to Tubiolo, the meeting was intentionally scheduled for October in order to coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The meeting had Ailsa Gilliam introduce a presentation of SheroHub involving youth prevention and awareness regarding domestic violence, along with Dr. Harris-Madden informing how the Youth Bureau helps prevent and will continue to prevent domestic violence.
“Sadly, domestic violence is not just prevalent in adults,” said Tubiolo. “A staggering one in every nine female teens, and one in every 13 male teens have reported experiencing physical dating violence in the last year; while one in seven female teens and one in 19 male teens reported experiencing sexual dating violence in the last year.
“We must continue to educate people not only to be aware of domestic violence, but how to prevent it as well. That is why groups such as SheroHub are so vital to our society. Working together, we have the tools we need to continue the outreach and the education for people of all ages.”
Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden added: “To effectively stem domestic violence, we must equip our youth with the tools to develop healthy relationships and norms. By reaching youth through their preferred medium – technology – we have the opportunity to engage and model healthy attitudes and beliefs and the avoidance of domestic violence.
The statistics on the prevalence of teen dating abuses are shocking, according to Ailsa Gilliam.
“SheroHub leverages video game technology to raise awareness of healthy vs. unhealthy relationship dynamics,” she said. “It’s empowerment provided in an engaging and accessible medium that young people identify with. Let’s work together to prevent domestic violence occurring in young people’s lives so they can live to their full potential,”
