Women In Distress firmly believes that prevention through education is the key to stopping abuse for everyone. Since 1974, Women In Distress has made great strides in creating special programs geared to preventing the escalation of domestic violence.

Women In Distress provides professional education about domestic violence to law enforcement personnel as well as to health care professionals. The specialized training includes successful ways to deal with victims and abusers. In addition, the program sheds light on the warning signs to detect if abuse is present in a home situation.

A well-received program, "It's Not O.K." has been developed to educate children about domestic violence. The overall message stressed in this role model program is that domestic violence is not acceptable behavior and help is available to families in crises

In addition, Women In Distress has a trained volunteer staff to conduct educational presentations to the community at large. These presentations are delivered at no charge and highlight facts about domestic violence as well as the role of Women In Distress in the community.

Women In Distress also offers special seminars and educational presentations at the Jim and Jan Moran Family Center. The 500-seat auditorium is perfect for lectures and other presentations.

Click here for the CEU Training calendar. CEU training calendar

For information on the 2008 Core Competency Training schedule contact eherman@womenindistress.org or call 954-760-9800.

SCHOOL BASED PREVENTION PROGRAMS

Women In Distress staff, AmeriCorps Members and volunteers deliver School Board approved curriculum on healthry relationships to students from Kindergarten to High School.

Kindergarten to 2nd Grade - Hands are for Helping

3rd to 5th Grade- Get Real About Violence

Middle and High School - Imagine a World Where Love Doesn't Hurt

Hands Are For Helping

Kindergarten to 2nd Grade

The “Hands Are For Helping” program utilizes interactive exercises and mixed media to cater to the younger Elementary School audience. The goal of this curriculum is to promote and reinforce nonviolent behaviors in students by helping them define self-respect and respect for others. The curriculum helps students explore methods of using their hands in a peaceful and constructive manner, teaches them how to recognize and avoid bullying behaviors, encourages them to seek adults for help, and motivates students to practice nonviolent behaviors in their everyday lives.

Duration: The program is 4 weeks with 30 minute presentations in each class per week.

Week One: “Hands Are Not For Hitting”    

• The students discuss the meaning of respect and its importance in the classroom and in their daily lives.
• Students are read the Hands are Not for Hitting book which demonstrates productive and nonviolent ways to use their hands and encourages students to ask adults for help when they are angry.
• They are asked to take the HANDS Pledge: “I promise not to use my hands to hit or hurt others.”
• The students will decorate paper-bag mailboxes and the teacher will receive small certificates each week of the program. The purpose of the mailboxes and certificates is to reinforce each week’s lesson by distributing certificates to the students when they display acts of kindness throughout the four weeks of the program.  Participation of this weekly activity is at the teacher’s discretion.
• Goal: Students will learn several good things that their hands can be used for.

Week Two: Bullying    

• The students discuss different nonverbal and verbal bullying behaviors. Emphasis is placed on how students often send “messages” through actions and body language.
• Sticker Activity: Interactive game that enforces the importance of kindness and respect. Highlights that positive social interactions, particularly inclusion of others, can combat bullying and hurtful behaviors.
• “Resisting the Messages” Rap: “What’s the message? Is it true? Is it good for me and you? Don’t stand by and don’t be silent when you hear things mean or violent!” Students will be given the opportunity to perform the lyrics.
• Goal: Students will learn the different ways they can be a kind and caring friend.

Week Three: Anger     

• The presenter will discuss how anger is a healthy emotion; explain the common indicators of anger and educate students on the different ways to calm down in a healthy manner.
• Play-Doh Activity: Reinforces that hands can be used to work with someone to solve problems and how to ask for help when they are frustrated.
• Goal: Students will learn what anger means and positive ways for them to cope when they are angry of frustrated.

Week Four: Peace      

• Students discuss the definition of peace within their families and throughout the world.
• Heart Activity: Students are encouraged to find kind and appropriate words to describe one another.
• Peace Web: Students form a circle and yarn is webbed between them to demonstrate that everyone has a stake in keeping peace.
• Goal: Students will learn several different things that they can do to make the world a better place.

For printable information

For more information or to book a presentation

Get Real About Violence

3rd Grade to 5th Grade

“The Get Real About Violence” curriculum utilizes group discussions and interactive activities to promote non-violence. Emphasis is placed on solving conflicts non-violently, reaching out to adults for help, dealing with bullies, and encouraging productive action when witnessing violence.

Duration: The program lasts 8 weeks with 45 minute presentations per class each week.

Week One: Introduction

• Students will discuss the definition of respect, conflict, meanness, and violence.
• Stand Up/Sit Down Silent Activity allows students to see the different opinions of their peers when asked questions about bullying.
• Keep your Eyes Open Play promotes awareness of violence’s many forms and its prevalence in their daily lives.
• Students will complete the “Someone Positively Changed my World By…” worksheet which enforces how support and positivity towards others promotes a peaceful environment for everyone.
• Goal: Students will be able to describe what makes an action violent or mean as well as identify the many different ways that students are mean to each other.

Week Two: What is Violence?

• Students will discuss the many different forms of violence (emotional, verbal and   physical).
• The Different Boy Play: Uses class participation to convey that anyone can bully in their own way, and that anyone can be picked on.
• Goal: Students will learn that there are more forms of violence than physical and what it means to be different. Students will also learn how their actions influence others and how their attitudes and behaviors can contribute to violence.

Week Three: Messages and Bullying

• Students will brainstorm the definition and causes of bullying behaviors and how they send nonverbal messages through their actions.
• Sticker Activity: Interactive game that enforces the importance of kindness and respect. Highlights that positive social interactions, particularly inclusion of others, can combat bullying and hurtful behaviors.
• Students are encouraged to seek help from adults when confronted by a bully and to take action instead of being bystanders to violence.
• Goal: Students will learn several different ways to combat bullying behaviors.

Week Four: Anger

• Students will discuss how to identify their feeling, ways to recognize their anger and how to resolve conflict.
• “Emotion Square” Exercise: Shows students how others react differently to different situations (either Anger, Fear, Hurt or Mixed), and that different reactions should be respected.
• Students will review the “Anger Red Flags”, “Warning Signs of Anger”, “Intensities of Anger” worksheets.
• Students will learn how to correctly use an “I “ Statement to express their feelings when conflict arises with the “I” Statement Exercise: “I feel (emotion)…when you (action)…because (how it affected me)…” as a form of conflict resolution.
• Goal: Students will learn that anger is a healthy emotion, how to calm themselves when they are angry, and how to positively solve conflict.

Week Five: Bystanders and Bullying

• Students will discuss the roles that bystanders play in bullying, and how they can help or hinder the situation.
• Who’s to Blame? Play: Enforcing that both perpetrators and bystanders are responsible for violence.
• Goal: Students will learn that their actions as bystanders to bullying play an important role in erasing bullying behaviors.

Week Six: Alternatives to Violence

• The Facilitator will explain how the “Refusal Skill” can be used to resist people who want them to do something mean or violent, or as a strategy to combat being bullied.
• The Refusal Skill: Ask questions, name the problem, state the consequences, suggest an alternative
• The students will discuss how to avoid dangerous situations, how to avoid being a perpetrator by recognizing when you are under stress and alternatives to violence.
• Students will be able to recognize and respond appropriately to danger and use skills that help prevent mean and violent acts.

Week Seven: Using Resources

• Students will brainstorm who they can go to for help ( parents, older siblings, teachers, etc.) and plan ways of contacting them when they need help.
• Students collaborate in the creation of a Classroom Mission to combat violence: ( “Violence is everyone’s problem”, “Differences should be celebrated!”, “Each of us can be a powerful force in reducing violence.” etc.)
• Students will be able to identify local resources in their school and create a positive classroom mission.

Week Eight: Conclusion

• Students will participate in a Bingo Game which will review the terms, lessons and strategies learned over the past eight weeks.
• Goal: Students will review all the information learned and be given a chance to ask questions about the program.

Printable information

                                        To get more info or arrange a presentation                                                                                 

Imagine a World Where Love Doesn’t Hurt

Middle and High School Curriculum

The “Imagine…” curriculum mixes interactive activities with open forum group discussions to discuss myths about relationship violence, create an awareness of dating violence’s prevalence in society, and teach the students non-violent techniques to support victims of dating violence. The curriculum also touches on how and why there are so many misconceptions about dating and healthy relationships, and encourages the students to combat those unhealthy behaviors in order to become part of a social change movement that does not accept abuse within intimate relationships.

Duration: The program lasts for 5 week with 1 hour presentations each week per class.

Week One: Introduction

• The students discuss the definition of respect and different perceptions of dating.
• The students complete and discuss the “Ways I want to treat/ How I want to be treated by a dating partner” worksheet which shows students that everyone has different expectations of dating relationships and encourages students to begin thinking of how they want to be treated in a relationship.
• The students are given the “Teen Dating Bill of Rights” to be used as a resource that emphasizes the many different rights that teens have when entering or getting out of a relationship. Example: “the right to be safe” and “the right to be listened to seriously.”
• Students will participate in “Dating Bingo”, an activity to designed to show students that different people value different things in their relationships.
• Goal: The students will be able to identify the qualities that are most important to them in a relationship as well as actions that are caring and supportive. Students will also understand that they can and should choose how they want to be treated in a relationship and how they want to treat their partners.

Week Two: Defining Teen Dating Violence

• Students learn the story of “Thomas and Aisha”: An interactive narrative of a teen dating violence relationship in Broward County. Students take on roles of friends and family that Aisha turns to for help during the relationship. The activity demonstrates the importance of nonviolent support from family and friends to victims of dating violence.  The activity also highlights different aspects of abuse, and often brings to light the misconceptions many students hold of dating violence and the batterer/victim relationship.
• The students will discuss how dating violence is caused by a batterer’s desire for power and control over the victim. Emphasis is placed on what are NOT causes of abuse (e.g. substance abuse, anger problems). and that dating violence is a learned behavior.
• “Why People Abuse” Scenarios: An activity that stimulates a discussion about reasons people choose to abuse others, warning signs that you are being abused (red flags).
• Goal: Students will be able to identify and define physically, emotionally, verbally, sexually and financially abusive behaviors. Students will understand the severity of dating violence and that the abuse is not a victim’s fault. Students will begin to identify the warning signs that a person is a victim or perpetrator of abuse.

Week Three: How to Help a Friend

• Students will discuss the several reasons why it may be hard to leave an abusive relationship and that close friends of the same peer group are more likely to be confided in by a victim rather than a parent or teacher.
• “Why don’t people just leave?” Students read the story of an abusive relationship to show that different people leave and stay at different times for different reasons.  The story enforces how complicated and different abusive relationships can be, and that asking a victim “why don’t you just leave” is not supportive or productive.
• Students discuss why it is hard for a victim to get help, how to help a friend (including support and keeping things private), and the harm of being merely a bystander to violence rather than trying to help.
• Students will receive contact information for community resources for teens.
• Goal: Students will recognize the difficulty in leaving abusive relationships as well as describe a variety of ways to be supportive to a friend who is a victim of abuse. Students will also learn where they can go for help if they are victims or perpetrators of abuse.

Week Four: Helping Friends

• “Greg and Michelle” Activity: Students role-play as friends of a couple in an abusive relationship. The activity demonstrates the different perspectives of a batterer and victim, gives students a chance to practice identifying the red flags of abuse, and opens up the floor for discussing what to do, where to go, and who to turn to for help.
• Students will discuss the difference between jealousy and love and other common misconceptions about common behaviors exhibited in teen relationships.
• Goal: Students will be able to identify red flags that indicate their friend may be a perpetrator or a victim of dating abuse and understand how to support a friend in an abusive relationship.

Week Five: Achieving Social Change

• “Power Shuffle” Activity: Highlights the role of power people have and also highlights how people feel when they realize that others have it and they do not. The activity demonstrates the way people feel when they realize they are the minority in some circumstances, and the majority in others.
• Students will discuss the danger of having unfair expectations of other people, a partner, of what dating should be, or themselves. Students will also discuss gender stereotypes and how stereotypes can lead to abuse.
• Students define and discuss social change, gender roles and the effect of violent language on society. Students are encouraged to use what they’ve learned to re-evaluate their stances on dating violence, healthy relationships, etc. so that they might help stop violence and abuse in their own lives and the lives of others.
• Goal: Students will be able to describe how the images people hold influence their interactions in dating relationships, identify the harmful consequences of gender stereotyping and explain the role that gender stereotyping plays in dating relationships. Finally students will understand what social change means and how to achieve it.

Printable information on Imagine

Women In Distress of Broward County, Inc. will provide all materials for the program. The representatives from Women In Distress have been cleared to work in the Broward County School system. To schedule the “Imagine…” program, please contact Cori, the Youth Prevention Coordinator at 954.760.9800 ext. 1108.

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