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Southbay Community Services


Address: 1124 Bay Blvd.
City: Chula Vista
State: CA
Zip Code: 91911
Web Site: http://www.southbaycommunityservices.org
Contact Number: 619-420-3620

Description of Prevention Programs
The CCR started by providing training in the peer counseling class at Sweetwater High School for 30 youth. Following the initial training, 8 youth stayed involved and created a youth action group which they have called ‘Be The Change’. This group met regularly and planned for a 3-hour assembly for 450 9th graders focused on teen relationship violence, as well as gender socialization, standing up for others, and healthy relationships. The group developed skits, games, role-plays, movie clips, music, and t-shirts for the event, which was very well received. This group has also developed a Teen Violence Prevention and Education curriculum called “Be The Change” which uses materials from existing curricula such as In Touch With Teens, Making the Peace, and the Youth Relationship Manual. The curriculum focuses on issues such as violence, power, the “isms”, teen relationship violence, healthy relationships, and ‘being the change’ for themselves and the community. Be the Change training has taken place at Sweetwater High, MAAC Charter High, Chula Vista High, and San Ysidro High schools in the district. The youth have also been developing a new training curriculum for teachers and school administrative staff on teen relationship violence.

Materials/Curriculum/Campaign Used/Adapted

In Touch with Teens In Touch With Teens program was developed in response to the growing awareness of violence in teen relationships. The purpose of the ITWT program is to prevent the tragedy of relationship violence through education, advocacy and organizing. In order to achieve this goal to help teens create violence-free relationships we have been implementing our Teen Relationship Violence Prevention curriculum, In Touch With Teens, since 1991 in junior high and high schools, juvenile detention centers, and other community based youth organizations. The program received it’s initial funding from the Office of Criminal Justice Planning in 1992.

Making the Peace The “Making the Peace” curriculum is a complete program offering everything needed to address violence prevention in the classroom, after-school program, and residential program for youth, or juvenile justice setting. The curriculum can be adapted to various time frames and parts may be incorporated into social studies, health, or other courses. Working with young people can help reduce the social inequality at the roots of most violence and restore the human integrity that violence denies. It begins with five sessions that introduce basic concepts of violence and prevention and provide a framework of safety and respect for the class. These five sessions are the groundwork for the next six sessions that examine the particular forms violence can take. Sessions 6 and 7 look at alternatives to intra- and interracial violence and anti-Semiticism. Session 8 explores the economic roots of some violence. Sessions 9 and 10 look at gender relationships and violence toward women, and Session 11 examines strategies for reducing gun-related violence. The last four sessions focus on healing from past experiences of violence and on youth leadership in making the peace. Fourteen exercises for the student to do alone are included. (Contains 22 handouts and 47 references) (SLD.)

The Youth Relationship Manual Students are encouraged to broaden and deepen their understandings of relationship violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment and other forms of oppression in this content-rich curriculum with handouts in both English and Spanish. Each chapter provides background reading materials for teachers, detailed lesson plans, and interactive exercises for students. Beginning with a global focus on the various forms of oppression evident in societies around the world–racism, sexism, hate crimes, homophobia and abuse of people with disabilities–the manual focuses in gradually on issues of violence, sexual coercion, and abusive control that can arise in dating relationships among teens. Eight well-organized units offer students information about the cycle of violence, facts on teen dating violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault, as well as exercises designed to help them recognize the elements of healthy relationships and explore the links between media portrayals of violence and actual violence in real life relationships. Recommended for use in junior and senior high classroom settings.

The Youth Relationship Manual can be purchased at:
Peace Over Violence
1015 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Phone: (213) 955-9093
Web site: http://www.lacaaw.org

To obtain copies of Making the Peace contact: http://www.hunterhouse.com
Funding Sources
Funds obtained through the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence DELTA Project