Hartford Public HS Students Reject Violence in Their School

Students and faculty at Hartford Public High School Nursing Academy have been actively engaged in meaningful violence prevention efforts for the past year through their participation in the Connecticut YOUTH Forum’s R.I.S.E. Above Campaign for Violence-Free Schools.

The R.I.S.E. Above Campaign was developed in coordination with the CT YOUTH Forum’s Violence in Our Lives Project (VIOLP), a multi-year effort to provide Greater Hartford students and school communities with the skills and resources to engage in critical conversations that help build healthy, strong, and safe communities.

Through the VIOLP project, partially funded by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, students were trained as facilitators and provided a comprehensive discussion guide and tools for leading important conversations with their peers, parents, and teachers about violence in their lives. Participants engaged in violence prevention discussions, heard presentations by experts, and developed an appreciation and understanding of the various forms of violence and violence present in their communities.

The R.I.S.E. Above Campaign, with funding from the Connecticut Health Foundation, was implemented in schools between January and June 2017 as a complement to the VIOLP project. The goal of the campaign was to create a societal norm in schools to identify and reject all levels of violence, and to generate unity, commitment, and excitement around a clear “pledge”: “I pledge to Respect everyone that I meet, to Intervene whenever I can, to Support those in need of my help and Empower our school to end all forms of violence.”

The campaign objectives included decreasing the total number of reported incidences of youth/school violence in participating schools after one year.

Hartford Public H.S. Nursing Academy students attended facilitation training sessions from January through May 2017 to learn about violence in its many forms, and to develop presentation and communication skills to lead discussions in their school community. In May 2017, trained student facilitators delivered a R.I.S.E. Above Campaign presentation to the Freshman class.

“I think it was effective for the students involved to feel empowered and to be viewed as strong, smart, and non-violent students by their peers,” said Liz Slot, teacher at HPHS Nursing Academy. “The more (students) hear it and see it and live it, the more they believe it and act on it.”

For more information about the CT YOUTH Forum’s Violence in Our Lives Project and the R.I.S.E. Above Campaign for Violence Free Schools, please visit www.ctforum.org/violproject/ or contact Ruth Cullen at rcullen@ctforum.org or (860) 509-0909 x 12.