For years, Kathy Ross had been looking for a violence prevention program to use in her Morris County, New Jersey child and family resources center. Most of the programs and curriculum she came across fell short in one important way: They didn't focus on the adults who spend time with children every day and have a strong influence on them. "Research shows if you change adults' behavior you also change children's behavior," Ross says.

In November 2000, Ross heard about a new program aimed at adults who work with young children. Called ACT 'Adults and Children Together' Against Violence, the program is both a community-training program and public awareness campaign. Its goal is to prevent violence by teaching adults to demonstrate how to solve problems without resorting to violence. The program is sponsored by the American Psychological Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Ross became one of the first professionals to incorporate ACT into her work and community. She raised funds locally and formed a coalition of leaders from different parts of the county to figure out how the program could make the biggest impact.

So far, Ross has trained nine groups of facilitators, or nearly 100 people, who have used the curriculum in places like prenatal classes, school cafeterias, child care centers and schools. One facilitator trained 200 high school students as mentors in violence prevention for elementary school children. "What people have done with the information has exceeded every expectation I've had," Ross says.

Violence Is Learned Early

ACT is the brainchild of Jackie Gentry of the American Psychological Association, who felt that although their programs on violence prevention were useful, they weren't reaching the public with an important message: Violence is learned, and it's very often learned during the earliest years of life.

"The learning environment is set up by adults," Gentry says, "particularly for the youngest kids. We need to speak to adults through mass media and their communities, educate them by saying you can teach young children the kinds of skills that will make their lives better and protect them from violence not only when they are children but when they are adults."

Audio Excerpt

Jackie Gentry - "Children are people watchers..." [1] (:23) Need Real Player [2]?

According to Parker Anderson of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the focus on children birth to age 8 is unique for such a program. "So much emphasis and effort has been directed toward violence prevention among children in early adolescence and above," Anderson says, "not towards very young children."

The goal of ACT is to make young children a focus of all violence prevention. According to research, the majority of violence prevention programs directed toward teenagers and upper middle-school students may be too late. "It has been shown scientifically that habitually aggressive behavior starts before that," Gentry says.

Reaching People Where They Live
The national ACT training program is delivered in a 2—or 3—day workshop that teaches adults how to implement and evaluate the training program in their communities. The training includes how to work with diverse groups of adults, how to disseminate information on child development, and how to design an action plan. Participants learn how to train other adults in anger management, problem-solving, discipline and media literacy.

"The training and structure gives people many things to do, depending on who their audiences are," Ross says. "It's not just a one-shot deal."

Since the program began in December 2000, more than 300 professionals have been trained, and they, in turn, have reached close to 3,000 adults in California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.

ACT looks different in each community. Lynette Poolman, who took the lead in Kansas City, Mo. received funding from the Kauffman Foundation for her local ACT program. In her community, the program has been incorporated into training for men in fatherhood court who have been delinquent in their child support payments or have histories of substance abuse. It is also part of the training for adoptive parents, and has been incorporated into a school safety program.

The ACT program has received about $1 million over a five-year period from organizations including the MetLife Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Center for Mental Health Services in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be conducing a national evaluation to determine how well adults are using the ACT training.

ACT has reached a wide audience through its public awareness arm, which features TV commercials, print and radio ads that show how violence affects even the youngest children. "We are approaching violence prevention through the public health perspective," Gentry says. "This is a complex societal issue that needs different and complimentary strategies to address it."

"We know that media campaigns can pique people's interest and awareness," Gentry says, "but it's a rare occasion that a TV ad or one newspaper story can change people's behavior. You get behavior change by face-to-face training."

Resources:

• Find eight ways to put ACT into action in your community. [3]
  
  
• Visit Connect for Kids' topic pages on crime and violence prevention [4] and the early years. [5]
• For additional information, see the American Psychological Association [6] and the National Association for the Education of Young Children [7].

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Julee Newberger is the former managing editor for Connect for Kids.