News

2003-2004 Activities and Accomplishments

• In 2003, VPP also received funding from Citigroup to implement Second Step training/orientation for parents of children involved in the Meriden Violence Prevention Project. (Trainings scheduled for early 2004 and early 2005).

• In 2004, based on the success of the Meriden Violence Prevention Project, VPP received a grant from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA) to assist Hartford Public Schools in implementing the Second Step violence prevention curricula in three elementary schools.  To date the curriculum has been out into use school wide at McDonough, Burns, and MLK elementary schools.

 • In August 2004, Kevin Borrup, JD, MPA joined the Injury Prevention Center as the Violence Prevention Program Director.  Mr. Borrup has experience working on community violence issues in Philadelphia, a court-based domestic violence program in Camden County, New Jersey and, as Compliance Officer for the Council on Accreditation (COA) in New York City, on child abuse and neglect occurring in institutional or alternative care settings.  As a Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV Lithuania 98-00) Mr. Borrup advised and worked with the Lithuanian Conflict Prevention Center, and the Youth Psychological Aid Center.

 • In November 2004, Program Director Kevin Borrup and Program Coordinator Cate Bourke presented the experience and achievements of the VPP in its successful implementation of the Meriden Violence Prevention Project during the annual conference of the Mental Health Association of Connecticut (MHAC).  Mr. Borrup and Ms. Bourke made known the availability of the VPP at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center to aid any organization or school district in Connecticut with its implementation of violence prevention programs (for more information, please contact Mr. Borrup at 860-545-9984).

 • In 2003 and 2004 staff at VPP developed the capacity to train others in:

-           Family Development Credential (FDC), a 110 hour training program of empowerment skills for family service providers. It teaches a strengths-based model of working with families.

-           Second Step Family Guide, a set of skills and ideas for parents that complements and reinforces at home what children learn about empathy, impulse control and problem solving, and anger management in school. (Second Step is a school-based curriculum created by the Committee for Children).

-           Adults and Children Together—Against Violence (ACT) is a violence prevention project that focuses on adults who raise, care for, and teach children ages 0 to 8 years. It is designed to prevent violence by providing young children with positive role models and environments that teach nonviolent problem-solving.

 2001-2002 Activities and Accomplishments

• In 2002, the VPP received grants totaling approximately $268,500 from local, city and federal sources to support its two major initiatives, the Meriden Violence Prevention Project (also known as the Meriden A-PLUS/Second Step Initiative)—a partnership with Meriden Public Schools—and the Peer Safe Dates Project—a partnership with the Connecticut Valley Girl Scouts Council.

• The Meriden Violence Prevention Project combined a community planning strategy with the implementation of research-based prevention programs in schools, families and community settings. The community component of this project includes more than 40 agencies, organizations, parents and youth who act as decision-makers and advocates for violence prevention in the Meriden community.

• The curriculum component of the program is based on Second Step, a program given “exemplary” status by the US Department of Education’s Expert Panel on Safe and Drug-Free schools.

• In 2002, the VPP trained 500 certified and non-certified staff at all eight of Meriden’s elementary schools (all staff members at all schools) on implementing and supporting the Second Step curriculum.

• The VPP offered 12 parent workshops on Second Step (10 English and 2 Spanish), with approximately 250 attendees. Parent workshop sessions will continue in subsequent years as a kindergarten parent orientation to Second Step.

• For the Peer Safe Dates Project, the VPP developed a dating violence prevention curriculum that was based on the research-supported Safe Dates program. In 2002, this adaptation of Safe Dates was delivered to 35 high school-age peer educators and 125 middle school-age participants by the Connecticut Valley Girl Scouts Council. Implementation of this program is ongoing, with an anticipated 125 additional middle school participants in 2003, and its efficacy is being assessed by two independent evaluators. 

• Other major activities of the VPP in 2002 include a brown-bag lunch for CCMC employees on bullying, a brown-bag lunch for Pfizer employees on bullying, and hospital cafeteria-based information sessions on bullying and dating violence (approximately 350 individuals reached in total).