Charlene Huppapurro, a teacher at Cheboygan Area Schools, is being honored by the Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan (WRC) for her commitment to the prevention of violence. Students from Huppapurro’s class were on hand to receive a framed poster depicting a power and control wheel presented by the WRC’s violence prevention coordinator, Dar Charlebois.

Cheboygan Area School students Samantha Darga (left) and Joseph Paquet are shown with the framed poster.

The wheel provides examples of nine types of behaviors illustrating types of physical, verbal and sexual abuse.  Students in Huppapurro’s class learned about the power and control wheel, as well as topics of harassment, manipulation, date rape and developing healthy relationships through a prevention program created by the WRC in 1999 called Just the Facts.  Charlebois facilitates the program in the classroom.

“We chose to honor Char Huppapurra because she has been so supportive of bringing our program into the school,” Charlebois said.  “The goal of Just the Facts is to provide facts and insight regarding issues many teens face.  It is also a time when girls and boys begin to define their roles in friendship and dating relationships.  It is hoped that by providing teens with this important information about themselves and each other, they will be more prepared with a foundation for positive future relationships and will be able to make educated healthy lifestyle choices.”

The Women’s Center provides this primary prevention program to teens at a time when national statistics show one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner and one in four women in the United States are victims of domestic violence at some point in their lives.

The WRC provides a variety of programs and services to survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault, rape, dating violence, stalking, child abuse and child sexual assault.  They also provide a Safe Home for survivors of domestic abuse and their children who need a safe place to stay.  Last year 135 survivors of domestic abuse and their children made use of the Safe Home and related support services.  The WRC provided counseling, support services and advocacy to an additional 529 survivors of domestic abuse and 312 survivors of sexual assault who did not stay at the Safe Home.

Anyone experiencing relationship or domestic abuse should call the WRC’s 24-hour crisis line at 231-347-0082 or toll-free at 800-275-1995.  More information is available on the agency’s website at wrcnm.org or at loveisrespect.org, a site designed specifically to help teens develop healthy relationships.  WRC victim support services are available in Cheboygan, Petoskey, Gaylord and Mancelona.