Introduction and overview

1. Key Strategies for a Successful Violence Prevention ProgramRobert Lowery, -Director of Program quality

2. Introduction and overview • Introduction • Violence Prevention Ice-breaker • Workshop Objective • Provide Key Concepts and strategies that can be incorporated into a violence prevention program

3. Agenda • Understanding Violence & Risk Factors • Evidence based • Individual Focused –Relationships • School Wide-Initiative • Parent Involvement • Community Partnerships • Resources • Q&A

4. Understanding Violence Examples of violent behavior include: • Bullying • Fighting (e.g., punching, slapping, kicking) • Weapon use • Electronic aggression • Gang violence

5. Understanding Risk Factors Individual Risk Factors • History of violent victimization • Attention deficits, hyperactivity or learning disorders • History of early aggressive behavior • Involvement with drugs, alcohol or tobacco Family Risk Factors • Low parental involvement • Low emotional attachment to parents or caregivers • Poor monitoring and supervision of children

6. Understanding Risk Factors Peer/Social Risk Factors • Involvement in gangs • Social rejection by peers • Poor academic performance • Low commitment to school and school failure Community Risk Factors • Diminished economic opportunities • High concentrations of poor residents • High level of transiency • High level of family disruption • Socially disorganized neighborhoods

7. Evidence- Based Practices • Many prevention efforts are ineffective because they provide peripheral information or only have short term outcomes. We need more than basic information about violence. Youth need more the “Stop the Violence slogans, assemblies and lectures. • A successful, a comprehensive violence prevention program must encompass instruction and skill building activities, parent involvement and community support • The emphasis on research-based practices has led communities to search for the best practices and to determine what types of programs would be most appropriate and effective for their population. As a result, identifying effective prevention and intervention programs has become a priority for both federal and private agencies

8. Individually Focused programs • The most common form of intervention targets individuals in order to promote social competencies and/or ameliorate deficits in troubled adolescents • Individually focused interventions attempt to change a person’s thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors. • The individually focused programs are grouped into three categories: • Social skills • Behavioral • Cognitive-behavioral

9. Social Skills, Behavioral, and Cognitive-Behavioral Programs • Teaching youth self-control and social skills enables them to competently interact with others and resolve problems without force or violence • Behavioral programs focus on rewarding desired behavior and providing mild forms of punishment for undesired behavior. • Cognitive-behavioral programs are similar to the social skills building programs that use behavioral and cognitive techniques; however, the former are typically delivered to small groups of at-risk adolescents or youth already displaying behavioral problems, rather than to a general population of students. The programs work intensely with these youth to change behavior by using behavioral techniques of punishments and rewards or by altering deficiencies in thinking skills.

10. School–Wide initiatives • Like programs designed to change behavior norms or restructure the school environment, programs featuring school and discipline management interventions involve a comprehensive, school wide effort, with school climate change as a primary focus. • Example: Bullying Prevention Program focuses on restructuring the social environment of primary and middle schools in order to provide fewer opportunities for bullying behavior and to reduce the positive social rewards (such as peer approval and support) gained through bullying behavior. • To facilitate such a sweeping change, the program seeks to ensure that adults are aware of bullying problems and actively involved in their prevention, conveying the message that “bullying is not accepted in our class/school, and we will see to it that it comes to an end” • Address: Aggressor, Victim, Bystanders

11. Parent Involvement • Improving parenting practices have been shown to be key strategies in reducing violence. Education Classes Adult Literacy Parenting Classes Family Nights Decision Makers

12. Community Support • Health & Mental Screening • Public Safety, Police Department engaged • Available Childcare, mentoring, tutoring, afterschool programs • Referrals services, transportation, legal, clothing, food, etc.

13. Review of Key Strategies • Understanding Violence & Risk Factors • Evidence based • Individual Focused –Relationships • School Wide-Initiative • Parent Involvement • Community Partnerships

14. Center for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/prevention Understanding Violence, Author Elizabeth Kandel Englander Youth Violence: Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools - Second Edition STRYVE: Striving To Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere Stop bullying www.Stopbullying.gov NYS Office of Mental Health website National Crime Prevention Council www.ncpc.org Resources

15. Questions

16. Contact information Robert F Lowery , Director of Program Quality rlowery@bgcbuffalo.org