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Producing documentaries for young adults with prevention themes like tobacco and marijuana abuse, binge drinking, relationship violence, and acquaintance rape has allowed Angelique LaCour to work directly with teenagers since 1989. Through work with a program for alternatives to violence in Colorado (Project PAVE in Denver), tobacco prevention and peer counseling programs in California (TAP in Orange County, San Diego City Schools Peer Counseling), an adolescent substance abuse program in Minnesota (Recovery Plus in St. Cloud), and a teen parenting program in Vermont (Parent-Child Center in Middlebury) she began to discover that many young people who turn to alcohol and drugs are medicating pain that comes from witnessing some measure of violence in their homes. She saw adolescent girls who had not learned to protect themselves at home become easy victims of relationship violence and sexual assault, and she saw teenage boys imitating the behavior of their tyrant fathers. She also saw ill-equipped young couples become parents prematurely. And she understood that if young people aren't reached by someone who can help them, they too will be at high risk for abusing their children and may unwittingly produce the next generation of batterers and victims. Since 1995 Angelique has been gathering material for a very special project. With help from other people who share her commitment to enlightened witnessing -- letting kids know that it's not their fault -- and brave victims of violence who are now speaking out, this material is being shaped into VIOLENCE BEGINS AT HOME, a television show that is not only still in production, but expanding. Together they hope that it can break through the wall of silence that is perpetuating violence in America today. |
