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My name is Melinda Gonzalez, and I am the founder of a non-profit organization by the name of TeenSelfAwareness. My mission with TeenSelfAwareness is to help stop domestic violence, with the hope of educating our teens on this matter.
I started this organization because of my life experience with domestic violence. I went through a violent situation at a young age. Before I was in a relationship of my own that was violent, I was taken from my mother at the age of six years old. Children and Family Services had to intervene because of abuse and neglect. By the time I found myself in a relationship when I was fourteen, I found myself with someone who was mentally and physically abusive towards me. To make matters worse, I was pregnant with our first child by the time I was fifteen years old. I went through this relationship for more than five years.
When I was sixteen, Children and Family Services had to intervene and take custody of my six-month-old daughter until I could prove to them that I could keep me and my child safe from her father. By that time, I had to attend classes for domestic violence as well as parental classes. It was a long, hard journey -- not to say that I did not meet a lot of good people along the way. It was just that I never felt that I had the support that I really needed to educate myself on why or how to leave the relationship. I always felt that the women I met were different; I was so much younger
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