Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 4 | March 2018

12 Inside Hokie Sports In May of 2010, University of Virginia senior women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love lost her life to relationship violence. Her former boyfriend, also a University of Virginia lacrosse player, killed her just three weeks shy of their college graduation. In the wake of this tragedy, Yeardley’s mother and sister, Sharon and Lexie, decided to do something to honor Yeardley’s memory and to prevent this from happening to other young people. They began to research the data behind relationship violence and what they found startled them. Today, statistics show that one in three women and one in four men will be in an abusive relationship in their lifetimes. Additionally, young women ages 16-24 are at a three times greater risk for abuse, and each year, more than 1,200 deaths occur as a result of relationship violence—more than three per day. With this new and shocking knowledge, Sharon and Lexie set out to make a change, and thus created the One Love Foundation. The One Love Foundation works with students all over the country to educate, empower and activate campus communities in a movement to change the statistics surrounding relationship violence. The goal of the One Love Foundation is to prevent relationship violence by meeting students on campuses and focusing on educating the most at-risk individuals—those between the ages of 16 and 24. The foundation educates students about the signs of abuse, what healthy and unhealthy relationships look like, and the resources available if they or their peers experience relationship abuse. One Love uses a program called the Escalation Workshop as a catalyst for this education. This 90-minute film-based workshop educates about the warning signs of an abusive relationship, creating a safe zone for discussing an all-too-common problem. Since the creation of the One Love Foundation in 2010, more than 125,000 students from more than 550 schools across the country have participated in the Escalation workshop. Consistently cited as “relatable” and “eye opening,” it has been implemented by various campus departments, including athletics, women’s centers, Greek life and other student organizations. In September of 2015, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced a partnership with the One Love Foundation and became the first collegiate conference to do so. Soon after, the Virginia Tech Office of Student-Athlete Development became aware of the foundation and quickly joined the movement by bringing the One Love programming to Blacksburg. A virtual training session took place that allowed multiple staff members from the athletics department, the Women’s Center, and the Office of Student Affairs to become trained One Love facilitators. These offices then bring this workshop to a variety of student groups, including student-athletes. The student-athlete development staff began to implement this program in September of 2016, and during the 2016-2017 academic year, every Virginia Tech student-athlete participated in the Escalation workshop. Following the success of the inaugural year of implementing theOneLoveprogram, the student-athletedevelopment team set a goal that every incoming Virginia Tech student-athlete, including freshmen and transfers, would participate in the Escalation Workshop within their first six weeks on campus—known as the “Red Zone” time period for sexual assault. The student-athlete development team met this goal during the fall 2017 semester, as all 160 incoming student-athletes participated in the workshop. Following each One Love workshop since the program’s implementation in 2016, the student-athlete participants complete a survey detailing their experience, and the data collected speaks volumes as to how significantly this programming impacted these individuals. Ninety-eight percent of those surveyed responded that, because of the workshop, they will speak up if they see unhealthy and abusive relationship behaviors in their own or their friends’ relationships. Ninety-eight percent of the student-athletes said that the Escalation Workshop made them aware of the unhealthy relationship behaviors that become abusive, and potentially the most startling response, 92 percent reported that the workshop helped them realize that relationship abuse is present in their or their friends’ lives. When asked for feedback on the program, freshman wrestler John Borst said, “The workshop was eye opening and helped me become more aware of what to look for, and how I can help my fellow teammates and my community.” The One Love Foundation, fueled by tragedy, has created a movement to change the statistics surrounding relationship violence, and in doing so, continues to help the Virginia Tech Department of Athletics provide education and programming to impact positively the lives of student-athletes. Tech Office of Student-Athlete Development using ONE LOVE FOUNDATION as guide to educate on relationship abuse by Natalie Forbes Senior Director, Student-Athlete Development