An Arts-Based Initiative for the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls

An Arts-Based Initiative for the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls

this project will evaluate a community and school based program to promote healthy relationships and prevent violence (physical, emotional and sexual dating violence) among predominately African American middle school adolescents in an urban setting (Baltimore, MD).

This initiative includes 4 major components: 1) A variety of arts based student activities related to violence prevention (during and after school theatre projects, during and/or after school visual arts project, and the web page design project. (All students will either directly participate in these activities or at least see them), 2) Curricular components for all 7th graders, 3) Violence prevention and early intervention student support/discussion groups, and 4) Faculty and staff training on the subject. The evaluation is a quasi-experimental pre/post test comparison group design (2 schools in each group), where our comparison schools convert to intervention schools one year after serving as comparison schools. We are using both group (student and teacher surveys) and school wide (climate of the school) measures pre and post intervention.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Students in four middle schools in urban Baltimore, MD (Dunbar, Lombard, Calverton and Lemmel Middle Schools)

Exclusion Criteria:

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