The Impact of Youth Alert! Intervention in Reducing Violence in Schools

Youth violence has long-term adverse effects on both victims and their communities. Most interventional strategies have little or no impact on reducing violence because they target supporting the victims whilst ignoring a social environment that continually facilitates exposure to violence through social and entertainment media. This paper provides some supporting evidence that interventional strategies that target changing attitudes and behaviour at a very young age through education are likely to positively change behaviour. Introduction Youth violence typically involves persons between the age of 10 and 24, who may be exposed to violence in any form or shape, i.e. as an offender, a victim, or a witness (https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/index.html). Aggressive behaviour may include physical or emotional violence against another in the form of bullying, cyber bullying, fighting, theft, pushing, etc. that may lead to harm or sometimes death, self-harm and suicide. Over and above the long-term negative health outcomes, violence in educational settings has also long-term negative effects on educational and social outcomes such as isolation, disengagement and disfranchisement from scholar and academic activities (Nansel et al., 2001; Rothon et al., 2011). There are, on the one hand, exogenous factors such as patterns of social change influencing social perceptions, attitudes and beliefs, and policy formation, and on the other, endogenous factors such as individual characteristics, individual perceptions and attitudes that influence individuals’ social, health and educational outcomes. In other words, any violence prevention programme must address both endogenous and exogenous factors to make a positive impact in reducing violence. Otherwise, focussing on programmes that merely supports victims of bullying, e.g. through mental health services, counselling, assertiveness training, etc, will Reducing violence in schools Wain, Omar & Shahtahmasebi Dynamics of Human Health; 2017:2(4) ISSN 2382-1019 http://journalofhealth.co.nz/? page_id=1345 ISSN 2382-1019 often fail, because during and following the intervention victims have to face the same circumstances, social and educational environments that made them a victim in the first place! That is prevention strategies must go well beyond the intervention philosophy and change the social environment. In this paper, we report the results from a universal programme that was implemented in schools in the USA to reduce violence in schools. Methodologies Youth Alert! (YA! ) is a none for profit and public charity organisation with a sole purpose of reducing youth violence and bullying by ten-percent reduction through volunteerism, education, and teamwork. The YA! ’s educational model attempts to reduce the incidence and prevalence of violence in schools by modifying adolescents’ behaviour. The programme is implemented in selected schools. The presentation in each school is comprised of slide and video presentations explaining violence and its impact on the individual and the community. It also provides the students on ways to combat violence and avoid confrontation, handling of bullying and seeking help when needed. It focuses on nonviolent approach to life in and out of school. For the remainder of this paper YA! indicates Youth Alert! intervention model. In Kentucky, YA! was delivered to all children in classrooms in a grade or in a school. Similarly, programs targeted to schools in high-risk areas are delivered to all children in a grade or school in those high-risk areas. This design allows comparison of outcomes over time (i) within schools or a district, (ii) between schools or districts such as comparing outcomes from high risk schools/districts with low risk schools/districts. Relevant data, before and after implementation of the programme, was collected to assess any change in outcomes. For the purpose of this report results are reported as rates of reported violence as recorded by the Education Department.