Are you already part of a peer group at school or in your community? It’s often easier to start new endeavors when you’ve already got an established group of folks who are already interested in volunteering and raising awareness. Consider asking your team, troupe, or organization to adopt dating abuse as a focus area for a year or special topic for a month.

If you’re ready to start a new leadership group to take on dating abuse, you’ll need to recruit peers. First, learn your school or community organization’s rules for creating new groups. Do you need to have an adult advisor? Or sign up for a meeting time and space? Once you know what’s required- begin recruiting. Ask good friends and classmates you respect to join in. Put up flyers in your school or community advertising a first meeting; be sure to include the time and location! Write an article for the school newspaper or make an announcement looking for new members. At your initial meeting have people sign-in on a roster and collect contact information (locker number, phone number, or email address). Decide as a group who the leaders are and what the group wants to be called. Next you’ll need to think about what issues you want to focus on.