The Jennifer Ann Crecente Memorial Group, Inc., commonly known as "Jennifer Ann's Group", is a Code Section 501(c)(3)

public charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

based in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, whose aims are to educate young people about the prevalence of teen dating violence, how to identify these relationships, and how to extricate themselves safely from such relationships.

History

The Jennifer Ann Crecente Memorial Group, Inc. received its corporate charter in the U.S. state of Georgia on June 23, 2006, and its 501(c)(3) status from the IRS on September 26, 2006. The stated goals of the organization are " keep Jennifer Crecente's memory alive through good works and by fighting Teen Dating Violence." The organization's trade name is Jennifer Ann's Group and is named in memory of Jennifer Ann Crecente. The group was founded by Crecente's father after the murder of the 18-year-old high school honors student by her ex-boyfriend.

Gaming Against Violence

The charity focuses on preventing teen dating violence through awareness, education, and advocacy. Although the group has several programs, the program for which it is best known is Gaming Against Violence, a program which produces and publishes

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

designed to prevent teen dating violence.

History of Gaming Against Violence

Since 2008 the organization has sponsored an annual game design competition, the Life.Love. Game Design Challenge, asking game developers "Can you create a video game about teen dating violence ... without using violence in the game itself?" The winning video games are published and promoted to encourage students, parents, and teachers to learn about how to recognize and avoid abusive dating relationships. The winning video games represent a wide range of countries, with winning games coming from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Mexico, Sweden, Thailand, and the U.S.

Presentations

Jennifer Ann's Group's efforts to use video games to prevent teen dating violence has been presented to many groups including

Games for Health Games for Health are games that aim to either promote health or to prevent, diagnose or treat (chronic) diseases. These games, which are generally considered serious games, aim to influence health outcomes by increasing the user's knowledge and chan ...

conferences in Boston and Amsterdam, mHealth conferences,

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tuto ...

(GDC), SIEGE, and to the CDC.

Journal Publication

The Games for Health Journal printed a Program Profile about the program: "Gaming Against Violence: A Grassroots Approach to Teen Dating Violence" in 2014.

Recognition

Recognized as a Top 10 Trailblazer by

Break the Cycle ''Break the Cycle'' is the third studio album by American rock band Staind, released through Elektra Entertainment and Flip Records in 2001. It is Staind's most successful album to date and was the album that broke them into the mainstream. It ...

for "innovative use of video games" to stop teen dating violence. Its video game 'Rispek Danis' was recognized as a Finalist for Most Significant Impact by the 2019

Games for Change Games for Change (also known as G4C) is a nonprofit organization. The organization provides support, visibility, and shared resources to individuals and organizations using serious games for social change. It also runs the G4C Student Challenge ...

Awards. Two video games produced by Jennifer Ann's Group and published in 2021, 'Culture Overlord' and 'Sea of Roses', were each finalists for the 2021 James Paul Gee Learning Games Award.

Video Games

''Rispek Danis'' (the Respect Dance), a "culturally appropriate and enjoyable game about

consent Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions as used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual relationships. Consent as und ...

created for youth in

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

" is a finalist for 'Most Significant Impact' at the 2019

Awards. The game is in

Bislama Bislama (; ; also known by its earlier French name, ) is an English-based creole language and one of the official languages of Vanuatu. It is the first language of many of the "Urban ni-Vanuatu" (citizens who live in Port Vila and Luganville) ...

and the game's dialogue, settings, characters, and music reflect ni-Vanuatu life. ''Rispek Danis'' is available to play online or for Android devices from

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sy ...

. An English-language version is only available to play online. ''Rispek Danis'' was developed through a collaboration between World Vision Vanuatu and Jennifer Ann's Group to "teach young people about the meaning and importance of consent" as part of the "It Takes a World Campaign" from

World Vision International World Vision International is an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organization. It prefers to present itself as interdenominational and also employs staff from non-evangelical Christian denominations. It was ...

. ''ADRIFT'', a

serious game A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, he ...

about consent developed by Quinn Crossley and Andrew Connell for Jennifer Ann's Group is part of the 2019 "Hedonism" exhibition at MOD. at the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...

which features a life-size video game called F.A.B.L.E. (the Federated Association of Believers, Leaders, and Explorers) that is based on ADRIFT. More of the winning video games from the organization's annual design competition are published online and/or for download to smartphones and tablets. A selection of the video games include: ''Grace's Diary'', a game about dating violence and bystander awareness from 2010 developed by GPTouch; ''Love in the Dumpster'', a game about teen dating violence and its impact on all genders from 2013 developed by AnotherKind; ''The Guardian'', a game about abusive relationships and its impact on different age groups and genders from 2014 developed by 99UNO; ''Another Chance'', a "cute, sprite-based game" with "interesting mechanics and, yes, got a bit preachy" that "for a brief, razor-sharp moment I was confronted with a real issue in the world today: Teen Dating Violence" from 2015 developed by AnotherKind; ''HONEYMOON'', a game about healthy relationships from 2016 developed by SNDR; ''Stuck in a Dark Place'', a serious game about consent that "addresses many consent scenarios including sexual assault and rape" from 2017 developed by AnotherKind; ''Citizen Witch'', a game about bystander intervention from 2018 developed by Lucas Vially; and ''Step Up'', a game about bystander intervention from 2018 developed by Jc Games. The games are available through various app stores including App Store (iOS),

, Amazon App Store,

Blackberry World BlackBerry World (previously known as BlackBerry App World) is an application distribution service, aka an 'app store', and application by BlackBerry Limited; for BlackBerry 10 devices, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and a majority of BlackBerry OS devi ...

, and

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio ...

skills marketplace. The organization's game portal JAGga.me features a rotating selection of the video games as does its page on itch.io. All games for online play and for download are free.

Media Coverage

The Gaming Against Violence program and Jennifer Ann's Group's use of video games has been covered by a range of gaming and mainstream media outlets including ''Wired'', '' Huffington Post'', '' Kotaku'', Fast Co.Exist, ''Polygon'', ''

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...

'',

GamePolitics.com GamePolitics.com was a blog which covered the politics of computer and video games. GamePolitics was launched by freelance journalist Dennis McCauley in March 2005. At the time, McCauley was the video game columnist for ''The Philadelphia Inqui ...

, and

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Efforts: Other Programs

Legislation

* On November 16, 2006 a member of the Jennifer Ann's Group's advisory group, Dr. Elizabeth Richeson, used Jennifer Ann's Group as an example of a group that is attempting to educate others about the prevalence of teen dating violence at the Texas Psychological Association's convention about their "Stand Against Violence" campaign. On November 23, 2006 Dr. Richeson discussed the group's efforts to educate others about how common violence is in teenage relationships in an interview with

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

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affiliate KTSM. * On February 13, 2007, the charity provided testimony to the Texas House in support of new legislation proposed to require school districts in Texas to adopt policies regarding teen dating violence. On May 18, 2007 the Dating Violence Policy Bill was signed into law in Texas and became effective immediately. * The charity has successfully lobbied with Texas state politicians Senator Eliot Shapleigh and Representative Valinda Bolton to have a bill, " Jennifer's Law" entered into legislation in Texas to award posthumous diplomas to high school seniors that have died during their senior year. The bill was entered on February 15, 2007, the one-year anniversary of Jennifer Ann Crecente's murder. The legislation passed both the Senate and the House and was sent to Governor Rick Perry for signing. The law went into effect upon signing by the Governor on June 15, 2007.

Partnerships

* On February 8, 2007, the charity announced a partnership with the Loveisrespect National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline to promote their helpline on the Educational Cards that the charity distributes. The charity purchased 10,000 Educational Cards that will be distributed to the Education, Health Care and Government sectors.

Educational Resources

* On September 28, 2007, the charity received their order of 100,000 Educational Cards to educate teens about the dangers of teen dating violence. These free cards are given to organizations throughout the United States. The educational cards have the same form factor as credit cards - and are made from the same material. The idea behind the cards was to provide this information to young people in a format that would "endure scrutiny as well as the lifestyles of young people." * On January 31, 2009, the charity announced that it had distributed over 250,000 Educational Cards to schools and other organizations across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in support of its efforts to increase awareness about teen dating violence. * In 2009 the group began distributing educational bookmarks. The bookmarks contain the same safety information and warning signs as the cards but also includes other helpful information intended to encourage students to retain the bookmarks for future reference. * As of 2016 the organization had distributed over 500,000 of their resources to "schools, churches, and other organizations at no cost to them."

Fundraisers

* The first annual fundraiser, held April 21, 2007 in

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

was supported by many organizations. Video gaming blog ''Kotaku'' offered several video gaming packages for bid through eBay with all proceeds going to the charity.http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/12320/Gaming_Auctions_for_Charity.html Gameworld Network * In 2008 the fundraiser moved to the Fall and was held September 13, 2008 in El Paso. * From 2009 to 2016, the fundraiser was held in October in El Paso.

References

External links

Jennifer Ann's Group
Official site.
Jennifer Ann's Group's game portal
Official site.
GDC Presentation
2015 presentation at GDC by the founder of Jennifer Ann's Group.
'Culture Overlord' video game about media literacy and healthy relationships
Game produced and published by Jennifer Ann's Group in 2021. Finalist for 2021 James Paul Gee Learning Games Award.
'Sea of Roses' video game about cultural influences on healthy relationships
Game produced and published by Jennifer Ann's Group in 2021. Finalist for 2021 James Paul Gee Leaning Games Award.
'Lamplight Hollow' video game about gaslighting
Game 'Lamplight Hollow' produced and published by Jennifer Ann's Group in 2020. Winner of 2020 Jungle Jam DreamHack Anaheim.
'Rispek Danis' video game about consent and healthy relationships
Game 'Rispek Danis' produced and published by Jennifer Ann's Group and World Vision Vanuatu. Finalist for 2019 Games for Change Award for "Most Significant Impact." Criminology organizations Educational charities based in the United States Organizations based in Atlanta Organizations established in 2006 Charities based in Georgia (U.S. state) Women's organizations based in the United States Domestic violence-related organizations in the United States Dating Women in Georgia (U.S. state)