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Safe School Healthy Students
A New Approach
Safe Schools/Healthy
Students
Joining forces — The Federal Departments of Education, Justice,
and Health and Human Services, have come together in a ground breaking effort
to provide answers to school/youth violence prevention.
Relying on evidence — Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) brings together the latest thinking and best practices in education, justice, and mental health about how to promote the social development of children and how to keep them safe.
Working locally — With financial and technical support from SS/HS, cities, towns, and school districts are using this evidence to create solutions that fit their own specific needs
How Does Safe Schools/Healthy Students Work?
Working together — SS/HS builds teamwork among schools, mental health providers, justice agencies, families, and other community partners.
Creating a vision — SS/HS partners set goals and develop a plan of action.
Changing the environment — SS/HS creates an atmosphere of security, support, and trust.
Strengthening students — SS/HS works directly with students to deal with problems and to avoid risky situations.
Steering a course — SS/HS partners measure their progress and adjust their activities.
Thinking big — SS/HS communities focus on six essential elements for the safety and healthy development of youth:
What We Know
Early beginnings — Childhood experiences prompt some children to become violent at an early age.
Critical years — Most youth violence begins in adolescence and ends with transition into adulthood.
Multiple causes — Aggression, substance abuse, antisocial attitudes, lack of judgment, psychological condition, poor parenting, conflict at home, failure in school, delinquent friends, poverty, availability of weapons, and troubled neighborhoods are some of the many causes of violence among young people.
Proven solutions — Emotional well-being, parent training, family services, academic achievement, conflict resolution, thinking and problem-solving skills, standards of behavior, communication skills, and parent involvement are a few of the many areas that schools and communities can focus on to make youth less likely to commit violent acts or to be victims of violence.
Appropriate methods — Prevention activities work best when they are matched with youths' age, gender, and ethnic or cultural background.
Broad approaches — No single activity is enough to prevent violence and schools alone can't do it all. The best results come when the whole community takes responsibility for the problems of youth.
Guiding Principles
Start early — Work to prevent violence before it starts.
Be aware — Understand the many factors that can protect youth from violence or put them at risk. Use knowledge-Do things that have been proven by research to be successful.
Reach out — Let youth know that adults care.
Be a partner — There's strength in unity-families, schools, and communities working together.
Be positive — Preventing violence often means strengthening the qualities that keep young people from violence.
Getting Results Measuring Progress
The results have been encouraging! Even though most SS/HS communities have not experienced the tragic violence that has stricken other places, several sites reported that serious incidents have been avoided because SS/HS had given students someone to notify.
Promoting peace, resolving conflict, making services accessible, working with parents, training teachers, sharing experiences, and educating the community! SS/HS grantees are trying many creative approaches.
SS/HS communities and the Federal partners are enthusiastic and learning a lot! Each community is measuring its own progress and a national evaluation will determine the overall results. This new evidence will speed us toward our goal-safe schools and healthy students.
Healthy Students
A National Issue
In the last few years, communities all over the country have been looking for
better ways to make sure that schools are safe places where students can learn
and grow, free from the fear of bullying, fighting, and weapons. Contrary to
public perception, crime and violence in our schools continues to decline.
The Department of Education's 2000 Annual Report on School Safety shows that,since1992,rates of serious crime, including violent crimes, have steadily declined in our schools, and the number of nonfatal crimes in schools is down by more than 21 percent. The trend is encouraging, but more work needs to be done. At some schools, there are problems of crime and violence. These problems put teachers and children in danger and interfere with their ability to teach and to learn. All students need an environment where they feel safe and valued and where adults work together to provide a positive setting.
Meeting everyone's needs and choosing the best approach is challenging. As cited in the 2000 Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence, individual, family, and societal factors all play a part in healthy youth development and, conversely, the risk of violence. Fortunately, researchers have accumulated a considerable base of scientific knowledge about what protects children from violence, what puts them at risk, and what methods work. The Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative is putting that research into action.
Healthy Students
Safe Schools
Have a plan to prevent violence
Safe Schools Healthy Students
Call for free materials or more information
1-800-789-2647
www.mentalhealth.org
1 -877-339-SSHS (7747)
www.sshsac.org
Printed January, 2002
CMHS-SVP-0050
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