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Youth Violence Prevention |
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Youth Violence Prevention
In recent years, youth violence in Kalamazoo County has contributed to the creation of environments that are less than optimal for the personal and academic success of our community's youth. Through its Youth Violence Prevention initiative, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation—in partnership with other funders—supports local organizations in their efforts to reduce violence, teasing and bullying. Youth Violence Prevention enables the local nonprofit, youth-serving community and schools to more fully engage in order to support the cultural transformation that begins with a common language and shared experiences of acceptance, accountability and forgiveness.
The goal of Youth Violence Prevention is to transform school environments to be more caring, respectful and inclusive of all students by decreasing school violence and environmental factors that contribute to violence such as bullying and teasing, which often lead to isolation and loneliness.
The Strategy
The Youth Violence Prevention strategy is straight forward. Through the initiative, the Community Foundation:
• Provides nonprofits and schools with opportunities to plan projects that facilitate the social and
emotional development of students using models that reflect best practices from the filed;
• Enables nonprofits and schools to be successful by providing funding and other forms of support such
as coordination, partnerships and evaluation;
• Collaborates with local human services providers whenever possible to add expertise, respond to
immediate opportunities and challenges, and sustain the long term improvement of the school
environment;
• Leverages community volunteers to support nonprofit and school efforts; and
• Plans for the future based on learning opportunities and feedback from the community.
An Effective Model
One especially effective model in the youth violence prevention arena is that of Challenge Day, a national organization that inspires young people—and the adults around them—to create schools and communities of compassion, acceptance and respect. It is a program that encourages proactive solutions to prevent and reduce teasing, bullying and other harmful behaviors. More importantly, it motivates participants to "be the change" long after the one-day event concludes.
Supported through generous grants from the Arcus Gay and Lesbian Fund, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, John E. Fetzer Institute and individual contributions, Challenge Day is a local example of social capital at work. Since 2006, 13 area schools have hosted Challenge Days and more than 7,000 students and 1,500 adult volunteers have participated in Challenge Day in Kalamazoo County. |
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