VIOLENCE PREVENTION EDUCATION

Program Overview:

Positive Youth Development Programs provide violence prevention education and resources to students, staff and parents. To achieve this we have implemented a number of key programs and provided students a wide range of opportunities to get involved in positive alternative activities.

Violence Prevention Programs Currently in Place:

Second Step (grades K-6):
The award-winning Second Step program teaches social and emotional skills for violence prevention. The program includes research-based, teacher-friendly curricula, training for educators, and parent-education components. Research shows that aggressive behavior in children predicts risk of later delinquency, substance abuse, school dropout, early parenthood, and depression. Classroom use of the Second Step program helps provide children with the skills they need to create safe environments and become successful adults.
www.committeeforchildren.org

LifeSkills Training Program (grades 4-8):
LifeSkills is a multi-component substance abuse and violence prevention curriculum used by classroom teachers to build necessary life skills in students such as decision-making, handling peer pressure, coping with anxiety and anger and positive communication. Use of this curriculum has been shown to reduce the abuse of harmful substances and violence.
www.lifeskillstraining.org

Project SUCCESS (grades 10-12):
Project SUCCESS (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students) prevents and reduces substance abuse among high school adolescents by placing highly trained professionals in schools to provide a full range of substance use prevention and early intervention services. These include normative and preventive education, counseling and skills training, problem identification and referral, community-based processes, and environmental approaches.
www.sascorp.org

Link Crew (grades 9-12):
Link Crew is a high school transition program that welcomes freshmen and makes them feel comfortable throughout the first year of their high school experience. Built on the belief that students can help students succeed, Link Crew trains members of the junior and senior class to be Link Leaders. As positive role models, Link Leaders are motivators, leaders and teachers who guide the freshmen to discover what it takes to be successful during the transition to high school.
www.boomerangproject.com

Safe School Ambassadors (grades 7 – 12):
Students representing all parts of the student population receive training in critical skills like observation, communication, deflection, distraction, negotiation, and referral. Safe School Ambassadors are trained to notice behaviors, and intervene to stop them before they escalate into more harmful forms of violence and create a pervasive sense of fear on campus. They actively model tolerance and respect in their own interactions, AND they intervene to stop intolerance and disrespect shown by their peers. In this way, Safe School Ambassadors help shift campus norms and maintain a healthy and productive school climate.
www.community-matters.org

Links and Resources:*

Tolerance.org is a principal online destination for people interested in dismantling bigotry and creating, communities that value diversity. If you want to know how to transform yourself, your home, your school, your workplace or your community, Tolerance.org is a place to start — and continue — the journey. Through its online well of resources and ideas, its expanding collection of print materials, its burgeoning outreach efforts, and its downloadable public service announcements, Tolerance.org promotes and supports anti-bias activism in every venue of life. www.tolerance.org/index.jsp

The Museum of Tolerance is a high tech, hand-on experiential museum that focuses on two central themes through unique interactive exhibits: the dynamics of racism and prejudice in America and the history of the Holocaust. www.wiesenthal.com/mot/index.cfm

*These links are listed as a courtesy to our website visitors. While these sites are offered as a resource for our visitors, the Elk Grove Unified School District does not control the information contained in the linked websites and accepts no liability for any information.

Contacts:
Positive Youth Development Team:
Shirley Arroyo, Positive Youth Development Coordinator
Tami Silvera, Positive Youth Development Project Implementor
Jennifer Ballerini, Program Assistant
Barbara Curry, Project SUCCESS Project Implementor
Chenetta Briggs, Project SUCCESS Project Implementor
Yvette Jackson, Project SUCCESS Project Implementor
Ron Richard, Substance Abuse Prevention Education Project Implementor

Mailing Address:
Student Support and Health Services
c/o PYD Programs
Elk Grove Unified School District
9510 Elk Grove-Florin Road
Elk Grove, CA 95624

Telephone:
(916) 686-7568

FAX:
(916) 686-7596