Men For Change (Media Advisory) - Media Coverage:

Openline Spring 1998

A Newsletter for the Staff of the Division of Juvenile Court and Community Schools, Los Angeles County Office of Education

The Right Honorable Kim Campbell, left, Canada's consul general and former prime minister, hosted an information session at her official residence in L. A. March 25 to showcase the Canadian violence prevention curriculum "Healthy Relationships" that has been piloted by JCCS. The event featured presentations by JCCS administrators, teachers and students. With Campbell is Area Administrator Gerry Lopez.

MICHELE
LANDSBERG

(excerpt) Helping kids deal with 'isms' has a lasting effect

Other school districts have tackled these issues with similar energy. In Halifax, a group called Men for Change created a three-volume program (for students in grades 7, 8 and 9) called Healthy Relationships, A Violence-Prevention Curriculum, that is so successful it has been snapped up in the United States and schools across Canada.

LIFE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1998

L. A. showcases local anti-violence course

By ANDREA MacDONALD
The Daily News

A local program designed to prevent violence among youth is getting star treatment south of the border.

Kim Campbell will showcase Men for Change's school program today, at her official residence in Los Angeles.

The former Canadian prime ministerwho is now Canada's Consul Generalwill try to sell the program to other educators after a successful run in L. A. involving inner-city kids.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education used the coursealso tried out by Dartmouth High School in 1995in its juvenile court and community schools division.

Men for Change is made up of three Halifax men devoted to ending male violence.

They developed the program in 1994 with the help of the former Halifax County-Bedford school board.

Since then, copies of Healthy Relationships: A Violence-Prevention Curriculum have been sold in every Canadian province and territory and in 30 U.S. states, but the California deal is considered a major coup.

Eleven facilities throughout the county were involved in the pilot and more than 80 teachers and administrators were trained.

"The young people that we work with are kids who are either incarcerated or on probation. All of them, if they were adults, the crimes that they committed would be felonies," explains Dolores Richie, curriculum co-ordinator with L. A.'s juvenile court and schools.

"So we see this as an important aspect of our programto try to teach and present these young people with some options to violence.

"One way this curriculum deals with that is teaching them to manage their own anger or understand their own anger."

The three-month pilot project involved youth at two juvenile halls, eight community-education centres and one centre for abused children.

It wrapped up in December and a second phase is about to begin.

Almost all of the kids in the project have been involved in gang activity and many still maintain their gang ties. The population is overwhelming Hispanic, with some blacks and a small number of whites.

Some 75 per cent are boys, and many live in group homes. In the course, they learned about gender stereotypes, media literacy and domestic violence.

The curriculum emphasizes understanding male aggression, anger management and gender issues related to violent behavior.

Co-developer Andrew Safer told The Daily News from L. A. yesterday he was thrilled by the response.

"It's a great feeling to have a place like L. A. County Office of Education feel so positive about the curriculum and really make it work in their system.

"There's a real tendency in society to just point a finger at young offenders and say, 'lock these people up - they don't have any morals,' or whatever.

"It's easy to judge them, but the circumstances that they're growing up in are just horrendous."

Healthy Relationships taught the youths to identify the emotions that precede their anger so they don't channel their rage toward themselves or someone else, says Safer.

"From that, they learn the difference between assertive, passive and aggressive expressions of anger and they also learn that there's a whole lot more in the emotional palette than anger.

"A lot of kids aren't aware of other emotions besides anger.

"So when we get them thinking and realizing that there are all these other things, it obviously deepens their understanding of their emotions and their feelings."

That trait is especially true of boys, Safer says.

Final results of Healthy Relationships haven't yet been tallied, but anecdotal evidence suggests it's making a difference.

Safer says boys and girls in other areas have learned to recognize abusive relationships and pinpoint potential areas of violence.