North Dakota Prevention Tool Kit

Prevention Strategies and Programs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed technical packages to help states and communities take advantage of the best available evidence to prevent violence. The packages represent a select group of strategies and approaches to help communities and states sharpen their focus on prevention activities with the greatest potential to reduce violence.

The strategies and approaches from the technical packages are summarized below.

Stop SV

Prevent IPV

Below is a list of programs that align with strategies from STOP SV: A Technical Package to Prevent Sexual Violence and Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Across the Lifespan: A Technical Package of Programs, Policies, and Practices. Please note this is not a comprehensive list of strategies. The field of violence prevention is still developing and many of the approaches related to policy and community level change may not have a pre-packaged program. Preventionists are encouraged to review the violence prevention technical packages and select an approach based on their community needs.

This resource is designed to help agencies select and implement the strategies presented in the Division of Violence Prevention’s (DVP) technical packages. It walks users through planning, strategy selection, adaptation, implementation and evaluation. Depending on where you are in the implementation process, these sections can stand-alone or be used in any order.

Program	Type of Strategy	Approach	Program Description
Athletes as Leaders	Promote Social Norms That Protect Against Violence		Athletes As Leaders™ is a program for high school athletes on girls’ sports teams. The program aims to empower student athletes to take an active role in promoting healthy relationships and ending sexual violence. Athletes are encouraged to be leaders in changing social norms at school (and beyond) to a culture of safety and respect. It is recommended to use this program in conjunction with Coaching Boys Into Men.
Bringing in the Bystander	Promote Social Norms That Protect Against Violence	Bystander Approaches	Bringing in the Bystander® is an evidence-based bystander intervention program. Rather than focusing strictly on the roles of perpetrator and victim, the highly interactive Bringing in the Bystander® curriculum uses a community responsibility approach. It teaches bystanders how to safely intervene in instances where sexual violence, relationship violence or stalking may be occurring or where there may be risk that it will occur.
Dating Matters	Teach Skills to Prevent Violence	Teaching healthy, safe dating and intimate relationship skills to adolescents.	Dating Matters®: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships is a comprehensive teen dating violence prevention model developed by CDC to stop teen dating violence before it starts. It is an evidence-based teen dating violence prevention model that includes prevention strategies for individuals, peers, families, schools, and neighborhoods. It focuses on teaching 11-14 year olds healthy relationship skills before they start dating and reducing behaviors that increase the risk for dating violence, like substance abuse and sexual risk-taking.
Coaching Boys into Men	Promote Social Norms That Protect Against Violence	Mobilizing Men and Boys as Allies	Coaching Boys into Men^SM is a coaches leadership program that partners with athletic coaches to help young male athletes practice respect towards themselves and others. The goal of the program is to help younger generations build non-violent and respectful relationships to prevent future intimate partner violence and relationship abuse. The program was developed for coaches to easily integrate messages into their regular coaching sessions.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)	Create Protective Environments	Addressing community-level risks through environmental approaches.	Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design’s goal is to prevent crime by designing a physical environment that positively influences human behavior. The theory is based on four principles: natural access control, natural surveillance, territoriality, and maintenance. The CPTED training course helps participants put the theories behind CPTED into action in their communities by designing a hands-on, interactive, two- or three-day basic or advanced training specifically tailored to their community’s needs.
Discovery Dating	Teach Skills to Prevent Violence	Teaching healthy, safe dating and intimate relationship skills to adolescents	Discovery Dating is a healthy relationship development tool created by Wise Women Gathering Place. It provides a process for exploration of personal values, discernment of character traits of others, and practice of informed decision making. Discovery Dating details steps which enable the student to predict repercussions of certain choices and the benefits of true partnership based upon discernment of facts and information. Discovery Dating has been used with full or partial implementation in myriad settings, including elementary and middle school classrooms, educational sessions for mothers receiving public benefits, youth clubs, high school enrichment offerings, and women’s support groups. Detailed instructions for implementing 14 weekly sessions in a classroom are available; however, the lessons may be adjusted or combined to suit varying schedules.
Expect Respect	Teach Skills to Prevent Violence	Teaching healthy, safe dating and intimate relationship skills to adolescents	SafePlace's Expect Respect Program engages youth and adults in building healthy teen relationships and preventing dating and sexual violence. Expect Respect is built on an ecological, trauma-informed model and offers a comprehensive prevention program for youth in middle and high schools. Expect Respect provides school-based support groups and counseling, youth leadership activities, and educational programs in schools and community settings. The 3 primary program components 1) support boys and girls who have been exposed to violence, 2) mobilize youth as leaders and 3) engage schools, parents and community organizations in creating safe and healthy environments.
Green Dot	Promote Social Norms That Protect Against Violence	Bystander Approaches	The Green Dot strategy is a comprehensive approach to violence prevention that capitalizes on the power of peer and cultural influence across all levels of the socio-ecological model. Informed by social change theory, the model targets all community members as potential bystanders, and seeks to engage them, through awareness, education, and skills-practice, in proactive behaviors that establish intolerance of violence as the norm, as well as reactive interventions in high-risk situations. Green Dot in ND
Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP)	Promote Social Norms That Protect Against Violence	Mobilizing Men and Boys as Allies	The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Model is a gender violence, bullying, and school violence prevention approach that encourages young men and women from all socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds to take on leadership roles in their schools and communities. The training is focused on an innovative "bystander" model that empowers each student to take an active role in promoting a positive school climate. The heart of the training consists of role-plays intended to allow students to construct and practice viable options in response to incidents of harassment, abuse, or violence before, during, or after the fact. Students learn that there is not only "one way" to confront violence, but that each individual can learn valuable skills to build their personal resolve and to act when faced with difficult or threatening life situations.
Men of Strength (MOST) Clubs	Promote Social Norms That Protect Against Violence	Mobilizing Men and Boys as Allies	Men Can Stop Rape's youth development program, the Men of Strength Club, is a primary violence prevention program for mobilizing young men to prevent sexual and dating violence. The Men of Strength Club, or MOST Club, provides young men with a structured and supportive space to build individualized definitions of masculinity that promote healthy relationships. Men Can Stop Rape also uses public awareness campaigns and Community Strength Projects to reach young men at the community level.
Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP)	Promote Social Norms That Protect Against Violence	Bystander Approaches	The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Model is a gender violence, bullying, and school violence prevention approach that encourages young men and women from all socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds to take on leadership roles in their schools and communities. The training is focused on an innovative "bystander" model that empowers each student to take an active role in promoting a positive school climate. The training consists of role-plays intended to allow students to construct and practice viable options in response to incidents of harassment, abuse, or violence before, during, or after the fact. Students learn that there is not simply "one way" to confront violence, but that each individual can learn valuable skills to build their personal resolve and to act when faced with difficult or threatening life situations.
Powerful Voices	Provide Opportunities to Empower and Support Women and Girls	Strengthening leadership and opportunities for girls	Powerful Voices creates brave spaces with girls of color to take charge of their own power as leaders, igniting their abilities to confidently express themselves, build community, and act against injustices affecting their lives.
Safe Dates	Teach Skills to Prevent Violence	Teaching healthy, safe dating and intimate relationship skills to adolescents	Safe Dates is a ten-session program for 8th and 9th grade students that targets attitudes and behaviors associated with dating abuse and violence. Each session is approximately 50 minutes in length. Safe Dates can be flexibly scheduled (e.g., daily or weekly sessions). The program can be modified to be four- or six-sessions. It is important to realize, however, that the fidelity of the product and accompanying outcomes are best maintained by completing all ten sessions.
Second Step	Teach Skills to Prevent Violence	Social-emotional learning	The Second Step programs helps schools take a holistic approach to social-emotional learning (SEL), combining classroom SEL with new offerings for out-of-school time and SEL for adults. The expanded family of programs can help with: compassion in the classroom, common language across environments, and educator well-being.
Shifting Boundaries	Create Protective Environments	Improving safety and monitoring in schools	Shifting Boundaries: Lessons on Relationships for Students in Middle School is an evidence-based, multi-level prevention program for middle school students on sexual harassment and precursors to dating violence. The program is unique in that it embraces an environmental approach that identifies multiple strategies to support young people – both school-wide interventions and classroom lessons.
The Fourth R	Teach Skills to Prevent Violence	Social-emotional learning	The Fourth R consists of a comprehensive school-based program designed to include students, teachers, parents, and the community in reducing violence and risk behaviors. It is important that young people be given information that will help them make good decisions and are shown positive relationship models that will demonstrate alternatives to the negative examples they frequently see in the world around them. Involving all adolescents in education about safety and risk, rather than just those who show problems, builds resilience for future difficulties. Through this program, all students are better equipped with the skills they need to build healthy relationships and to help themselves and their peers reduce risky behaviors.