Prevention - Violence and Injury

This project works with the Prevention Center of Palm Beach County, Florida—and other regions of the United States—to develop, implement, and evaluate a program to prevent violence and enhance school safety for all 36,000 middle school children in the county. EDC trains community police officers to deliver the curriculum, Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders, and prepares them to become mentors and co-innovators in the program.

We assist colleges and universities create safer and healthier campus communities through an environmental approach. Our support services include consultation, resources and materials, face-to-face and online trainings, strategic planning, and support developing, implementing and evaluating proven programs and policies that address heavy drinking, tobacco and other drug use, violence, hate crimes, and high-risk sexual practices among college students.

The Connecticut Health Foundation’s (CHF) 10 year strategic plan included a goal to decrease the number of children and youth (ages 6-14) from entering the Juvenile Justice System and/or the most intensive level of mental health treatment. To accomplish this goal, CHF created a grant program to support and promote a comprehensive community-based system of early screening, assessment, identification, and brief intervention.

EDC is examining developmental pathways of violence perpetration among African-American and Latino young adults who grew up in severely distressed neighborhoods of the inner city and are now parents. About 1000 participants in the decade-long Reach for Health Longitudinal Study have been successfully tracked from middle school into their early twenties, a time when many have become parents. The information they have provided is being analyzed to address the questions: How do past experiences with violence shape parenting attitudes and practices as well as ongoing involvement in violence?

The Center helps college and community leaders develop, implement, and evaluate programs and policies to reduce student problems related to alcohol and other drug use and interpersonal violence. In order to produce enduring, large-scale changes that will make students’ social and cultural environment healthier and safer, the Center supports a comprehensive approach to prevention, grounded in environmental management strategies that address the institutional, community, and public policy factors related to these problems.

Injuries, suicide, and violence cause the greatest number of deaths and hospitalizations for children and adolescents. The Children’s Safety Network works with local, state, and national maternal and child health agencies, strengthening their capacity to address these problems through advocacy, materials development, training, technical assistance, needs assessment, evaluation, and policy development.

The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention (National Center) provides technical assistance (TA) and training to 106 federally-funded Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grantees and to six Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) (PL) grantees.

EDC continues to expand its Teenage Health Teaching Modules (THTM), a comprehensive school health curriculum for grades 6 through 12 used in all 50 states and several countries. EDC is updating scientific content and making the modules responsive to the ethnic and cultural diversity of today’s classrooms. New materials include Getting Active and Eating Well and Voices Against Violence. THTM has been identified as a “promising” model program by the U.S. Department of Education.

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) enhances the nation’s mental health infrastructure by providing states, government agencies, private organizations, colleges and universities, and suicide survivor and mental health consumer groups with access to the science and experience that can support their efforts to develop programs, implement interventions, and promote policies to prevent suicide.

This international education program introduces young people between 13 and 18 years of age to the basic rules and principles of international humanitarian law (IHL). Also known as the Law of Armed Conflict, IHL aims to protect life and human dignity during armed conflict and to reduce and prevent the suffering and destruction that result from war. Developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in close association with EDC and with the active participation of 20 countries from all parts of the world, EHL offers 30 academic hours of educational activities.