April 12–16 is National Youth Violence Prevention Week, a time to raise awareness of effective strategies to prevent or reduce youth violence. Founded by Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE), a part of Sandy Hook Promise, the focus of this week is to decrease the potential for school violence by promoting meaningful student involvement, providing education on topics of bullying and violence, and offering opportunities to make our communities safer for all.
Learn more about how you can get involved:
Encourage the positives by recognizing those in your community who work to create inclusivity and foster a safe, positive, and friendly school or community. SAVE offers tons of ideas on how students and adults can use this week to encourage empathy, connection, and outreach.
Download “A Comprehensive Technical Package for the Prevention of Youth Violence and Associated Risk Behaviors” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website and learn strategies your community can put into place to prevent youth violence.
Understand how prevalent youth violence is in your community. One out of every five high school students reported being bullied at school in the last year, and homicide is the third leading cause of death for individuals ages 10–24 years. Youth violence is a serious problem that requires everyone to focus on prevention. The CDC has compiled a list of youth violence resources with reports, articles, and data on the topics of school violence, bullying, and more.
Educate yourself and others on the signs of violent behavior. This article from the American Psychological Association can help you recognize warning signs.
“Creating Connections. Changing Lives.” It isn’t just a slogan here at PAR. It is part of our commitment to creating a better world. We offer several tools designed to assess risk of violence in youth, including the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth™ (SAVRY™) and the Psychosocial Evaluation & Threat Risk Assessment™ (PETRA™), as well as several measures that can help students who have experienced trauma, such as the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children™ (TSCYC™) and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children™ (TSCC™).