Founded 2006 | ||
The Jennifer Ann Crecente Memorial Group, Inc., commonly known as "Jennifer Ann's Group", is a Code Section 501(c)(3) public charity based in Atlanta, Georgia, 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.
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History
Orange headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia in the U.S.
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 "[t]o 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 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 conferences in Boston and Amsterdam, mHealth conferences, Game Developers Conference (GDC), SIEGE, and to the CDC. The 2015 presentation at GDC by the founder of Jennifer Ann's Group can be viewed online: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022007/Gaming-Against-Violence-Effectiveness-of
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 for "innovative use of video games" to stop teen dating violence.
Video Games
A selection of the winning video games from the annual design competition are published online and/or for download to smartphones and tablets. The video games include: Grace's Diary from 2010 developed by GPTouch; Love in the Dumpster from 2013 developed by AnotherKind; The Guardian from 2014 developed by 99UNO; Another Chance from 2015 developed by AnotherKind; and HONEYMOON from 2016 developed by SNDR. The games are available through the organization's game portal JAGga.me which features a rotating selection of the video games. 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, GamePolitics, and NPR.