Responding to Violence

Why is this man smiling? He's smiling because he was recently recognized with a 2008 Raise Your Voice Award by the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children's Hospital. He's Danny Friend, a member of Mental Health America of Licking County's award-winning PAVE (Prevent Assault & Violence Education) program. PAVE uses high school and college students to teach middle school and high school students strategies for responding to violence and threats of violence. The "volunteens" present brief scenes that deal with situations that are, regrettably, all too familiar to their audiences. These situations can include verbal and physical intimidation, relationship violence and all manner of aggressive behaviors. These scenes form the starting place for a meaningful dialogue between the audience, the peer presenters and MHA's trained facilitators. PAVE is designed to provide the student audience with information and strategies for responding to a wide variety of threats. Ultimately, the goal is to keep our young people safe and change their attitudes toward violence. Participating in the PAVE program not only impacts the members of the target audience, but it also impacts the student presenters. As they prepare for these presentations, they are obliged to confront some very complicated issues and work through their responses. It's challenging work and not for everyone. Often, the students who become involved as peer presenters do so because they have a personal connection to the issues involved. Frequently, they themselves have experienced some of the situations that they are enacting for their audiences. Mr. Friend, a relatively new PAVE member, became aware of an incident of child abuse that affected his own family and he reported it. He's smiling because he was surprised by the unexpected recognition and also, we would like to think, because he knows he did the right thing. Graham Campbell Associate Director Mental Health America of Licking County