Piloting Voices Against Violence, a middle-school violence prevention program to promote positive bystander action

Voices Against Violence is a theoretically and empirically grounded middle-school prevention program that addresses the critical role bystanders can play in preventing school violence. It uses brief video-based stories drawn from real-life situations to explore dilemmas faced by middle school students, their parents, and school staff when they are bystanders to violent or potentially violent situations. The program uses these stories to stimulate safe discussion and calls on viewers to find ways their school community can support bystanders in efforts to prevent different types of violent behaviors. These range from bullying and physical fights to weapon carrying and other potentially serious threats to school safety. Working in New York City as part of the Columbia Center for Youth Violence Prevention, the program has been piloted with middle school students attending a summer school program and among 7th graders as part of regular social studies classroom lessons. Four classroom sessions are delivered by trained facilitators, with teachers present for classroom management and training. Multiple strategies, including participation at parents' nights, homework assignments, and sending videos home to parents, have been used to promote parent involvement and parent-child communication. These strategies are being used to identify and close gaps between what children and adults think students should do when confronted by violence or potential violence and what they actually do. Barriers to parental participation and positive bystander actions are discussed, along with lessons learned from initial implementation efforts.