Our Staff Story
Meet the Dare2Know Staff!
Learn our roles, how we got into this work, and why it’s important for us to end Teen Dating Violence!

Kwnwahta Smith (He/Him)
Dare2Know Youth Program Coordinator
Email: Kwnwahtas@endabusewi.org
My Role: I’m responsible for planning and facilitating our Teen Ambassador Program year round, I co-create social media posts with our Teen Ambassadors to post on our Dare2Know Campaign. I also co-plan our annual Teen Summit and prepare our Teen Ambassadors to present a workshop there.
How I got in this work: My involvement began in middle school. I was a part of a afterschool program that taught middle schoolers about a healthy relationships curriculum called “Discovery Dating: It’s not just about dating” I was able to learn the curriculum for all of middle school until I reached high school. That’s when I was able to step into a leadership role. As a high schooler, we would meet with the middle schoolers and teach them the healthy relationships curriculum. It built our facilitation skills, our leadership skills, and our communication skills. Being a part of the High school Wise Youth Program opened up opportunities for me to present workshops at statewide conferences. Including, Teen Summit and Youth Partners in Civic Leadership (YPCL). That’s right, I participated as a high schooler in this program. I was in the Teen Ambassador Program, formerly known as Teen Council. I attended Teen Summit and lead workshops there as a teenager. Being a part of an afterschool program at Wise Women Gathering Place gave me the opportunity to participate in multiple trainings and to showcase my leadership skills. It led me to Teen Summit and the Teen Ambassador Program. I stayed consistent, I got hired on at Wise Women Gathering Place because of all the trainings I took for FREE in high school from them. Eventually, it lead to me getting hired here at End Domestic Abuse WI. I was once attending Teen Summit and the Teen Ambassador Program as a youth, now I get to follow in my mentors footsteps to help lead it.
Why is this important: I honestly think community has made this work so important to me. Everyone deserves peace, respect, and belonging but instead many communities continue to experience harm and violence. I want to be part of the change that addresses the root causes of violence. I want to continuously challenge myself and others to be equitable. Instead of being complacent, I want to be Courageously Uncomfortable because only meaningful change can happen in discomfort. I’m hopeful for a healing and healthy community. Community is my family, my friends, my Oneida Nation, my state, my country, my Mother Earth. Community is everything and everyone.

Cody Warner (They/Them)
LGBTQ & Youth Program Director
Email: Codyw@endabusewi.org
My Role:
- Bring historical context of past efforts.
- Support Dare2Know Teen Ambassador Program Leadership Fellowship and Prevention Grantee.
- Continually voicing for more LGBTQ+ inclusion and support.
- Promote awareness through many communications channels across systems and to the public.
- Provide training and education related to supporting youth and families as survivors, supporting LGBTQ+ survivors, basic advocacy, and many other topics as requested.
How I got into this work: I’m a survivor of childhood domestic violence, as an adult I’m a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault. As a part of my education, I had to volunteer at a non-profit, I chose the local domestic violence agency after school program. After leaving the first day I felt a major pull and calling to continue to serve victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. After about 5 years with that direct service agency, I applied for and received a position at End Domestic Abuse WI in 2014. Since then, my title has changed, but my passion to best serve victims and survivors has not waivered.
Why it’s important to me: My why has changed over the years. When I started in the anti-violence field, I wanted to be a support person for the youth and families that I never had. After about 5-years in the field, I was looking for new ways to try and affect change to better support youth and families as victims. First 5-years at End Abuse – Understand coalition work, build network to support advocates in the field, provided essential resources to train advocates. Following 5-years at End Abuse – Understanding prevention within anti-violence movement, understand and implement various evaluation tools, help advocates better understand prevention to then integrate into their current programming.