With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it may seem that women around the country are hoping for chocolates or flowers. But not this Valentine’s Day. Thousands of women’s rights advocates have voiced their demands for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) which is up for debate this week in Congress. VAWA is a US federal law originally …
Gun Violence Prevention: Mental Health is Not a “Silver Bullet”
Everyone in America, if not in the rest of the world, has heard about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Unfortunately, this is not the first school shooting to have occurred in the US—and, sadly enough, it will probably not be the last. For instance, the other day, my mom called me from Atlanta to tell me …
What’s In A Bully? The Harm of Loose Definitions and Labels
Surely we all remember the bullies of our day—the unfortunate among us may even recall being stuffed in a locker, spat on, or shoved to the ground. And over the years we have been inundated with explicit examples of the bully archetype. Think Angelica Pickles from “Rugrats” who got a kick out of exploiting and manipulating her cousin and his …
Are There Lessons to Be Learned?
By: Pete Hutchison, YES Program Manager and Flint resident Sitting in my office in Flint, Michigan reflecting on the tragedy that has taken place in Connecticut, I’m not sure what to make of it. After spending 39 years trying to prevent violence generally and youth violence specifically, it seems that there should be something profound to say. Yet as I …
December 2012 Connecticut School Shooting Position Statement
Nine school violence prevention researchers and practitioners nationwide have developed a position statement on the Dec. 14, 2012 Connecticut school shootings that is being disseminated across the U.S. today. This statement is in response to the tragic acts of violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School and updates the School Shootings Position Statement that was disseminated nationally following the tragic school-related …
Safe and Healthy Futures for All Children
Our hearts grieve for the families of Newtown, Connecticut, and for every family who has lost a child through homicide. In the United States, an average of seven young people under the age of twenty are murdered each day. Most of these children die as a result of firearm injuries. By applying public health principles, childhood deaths from infectious diseases …
Flint Youth Theatre Partners with MI-YVPC to Talk about Bullying
By: Corine Rosenberg, UM UROP Student The Hundred Dresses by Mary Hall Surface is a play based on the Newbery Honor Book by Eleanor Estes and is the Flint Youth Theatre’s second production in their 2012-2013 series. The play follows Maddie, a young girl who finds herself a bystander to bullying, watching her “popular” group of friends tease another girl. …
Is Violence Contagious?
By: Corine Rosenberg, UM UROP Student When we think about something being contagious, we usually think about the flu or the common cold—not violence. However a public workshop held by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) this past spring brought in speakers from a wide range of universities and specialties to discuss violence as just that—a contagion. According to the IOM …
The Power of After-School
By: Pete Hutchison, YES Program Director Today’s educators are being confronted with a rising amount of pressure to achieve, and this achievement is being measured through standardized testing. The admirable goal of this testing is to, in part, identify and develop interventions to address the large learning gaps that exist among today’s students. Unfortunately, as more and more schools find …
Assessing Properties and Homes in Flint Neighborhoods
By: Allison Krusky, MPH, MI-YVPC Research Associate While many people were indoors trying to beat the heat this summer, 6 Flint community members were out walking the streets evaluating the conditions of Flint properties. The Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center (MI-YVPC) Parcel Assessors evaluated over 6,000 properties over a span of 5 weeks. For properties with homes, Parcel Assessors evaluated …
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