LBCC’s Healthy Viking Initiative, alongside Planned Parenthood, hosted a Zoom workshop about healthy communication and boundary setting in romantic, sexual and platonic relationships on Feb. 10 as a part of their collaborative Health and Wellness workshop series.
These workshops serve to teach important life skills to LBCC students, encouraging self-improvement and advocating for healthy relationships among the student population. This was put together by LBCC’s Healthy Viking Initiative coordinator Jan Paolo Canteras and Brittinae Phillips from Planned Parenthood LA.
Phillips, a Planned Parenthood educator, gave helpful information and resources on what a healthy relationship should look like, as well as life lessons on relationships.
“There is no such thing as a perfect person or partner, but we can recognize patterns that can help us decide what relationships to enter into,” Phillips said.
Phillips presented the acronym F.R.I.E.S., which stands for freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic and specific.
Freely given, meaning not under the influence. Reversible, can change. Informed, share if there are communicable diseases involved. Enthusiastic, they are extremely willing. Specific boundaries are discussed.
Communication styles come in many different forms. Whether that be passive, assertive, aggressive, and passive aggressive. Phillips incorporated scenarios into the presentation to help participants identify red flags and green flags.
“Sometimes we confuse red flags for giving people the benefit of the doubt,” said Philips.
A “red flag” in a relationship, is any behavior that is indicative of “undesirable” traits one may want to avoid in a relationship. It could be something minuscule, like not liking a certain fruit, or something much more major, like a lack of trust, jealousy, or controlling behavior.
A “green flag” in a relationship is things that you want and can benefit from in relationships. They are based on mutual respect and positivity from both parties involved; whether that be good communication, attentiveness or emotional validation. These could be keys to long-term partnerships.
According to Phillips’ presentation “6.7% youth in LA experience abuse from partners, 20% women experience Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and 13% men experience IPV (2020 LA county).” There was information and signs to help students recognize patterns of abuse and IPV.
IPV can be physical, emotional, verbal, or financial abuse.
Phillips emphasized group participation, asking attendees for their initial understanding of subjects and including scenarios where participants identified examples of unhealthy vs. healthy relationships, giving students a chance to practice their learned skills.
The presenter also provided the following resources for students who may be experiencing IPV:
Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Hotline (800) 978-360
National Domestic Violence Hotline (800) 799-7233
Love is Respect Chat www.loveisrespect.org,
Peace Over Violence (310) 392-8381