Violence Avoidance Leadership Uplifting Education (VALUE)

VALUE Abstract
Fort Valley State University and the community partners that will be involved in the Violence Avoidance & Leadership, Uplifting Education (VALUE) project are committed to sharing the “value” of violence prevention in schools and their surrounding communities throughout the Central Georgia area, including Bibb, Peach, Macon, and Dooly counties. All of these counties experience significant levels of violence that spills over into the schools attended by middle and high school students. In a survey collected for the 2019 school year included that for Peach County students on the question concerning satisfaction with school safety, 68% strongly or somewhat agreed to feeling unsafe at school. In Macon County, 63% strongly or somewhat agreed to feeling unsafe at school. In Dooly County, 66% strongly or somewhat agreed to feeling unsafe at school. Finally, in Bibb County, 69% strongly or somewhat agreed to feeling unsafe at school. The specific program objectives that will be implemented towards achieving this goal will include:

Objective 1) To provide evidence-based violence prevention training for at least 300 middle and high school students during project year 1, and 600 each during years 2 and 3, for a total of at least 1,500 students over the life of the program, as assessed by a review of training attendance records.
Objective 2) To provide evidence-based violence prevention via the youth mental health first aid awareness training for at least 60 participants each year to include teachers (50%), law enforcement officers, parents and non-profit leaders
Objective 3) To recruit, train or maintain at least 10 peer educators each project year to work within the schools and the community to reinforce and further disseminate the message of violence prevention each project year, as assessed by a review of peer educator training records.
Objective 4) To develop social media campaigns to promote and reinforce the message of violence prevention throughout the student’s home communities, reaching at least 4,000 individuals each project year (12,000 over the life of the program), as assessed by a review of programs to track visits to various social media platforms.
Objective 5) To have all trained teachers and other adults in mental health awareness work through the schools to make referrals to mental health providers, as assessed via a quarterly review of the files of the Mental Health Project Liaison.