Get Real About Violence

Brief Program Description

Get Real about Violence (GRAV) is a K-12, research-based prevention program that addresses a wide range of violent behavior in students-from bullying and verbal aggression at early grades through fighting and social exclusion at middle grades to relationship abuse and assaults that can occur in later grades. GRAV places emphasis on enlisting the support of bystanders, changing violent norms, teaching social skills, and building communication and partnerships between adults and youth to stop violence.

The GRAV multimedia curriculum consists of three separate modules:

1. Vulnerability to violence
2. Contributors to violence
3. Alternatives to violence

GRAV provides a blueprint for conducting a needs assessment. It clearly defines goals and objectives and contains pre- and post-tests in all grade levels for evaluations to measure the extent students have achieved objectives.

Program Strategies

The GRAV curriculum stems from two primary types of research: research on violence and research on educational strategies. Lessons are designed to reduce pro-violent risk factors and create or reinforce anti-violence attitudes and norms. The lessons seek to encourage students to foster positive attitudes and behaviors among their classmates and the school community at large. The curriculum teaches students special skills to stay safe and healthy by showing them how to maintain self-control when tempted by violence, resolve conflicts without violence, and prevent or avoid violent situations use self control. Other GRAV strategies found to be effective include involving families and communities with extension activities, presenting a variety of lessons to address different learning styles of students, and providing sufficient flexibility to teach the lessons in a variety of academic subjects.

Population Focus

GRAV is a mixed-media prevention program available for students in Grades K-3, 4-6, 6-9, and for school staff in K-12 schools.

Suitable Settings

GRAV is suitable for all school-based settings and most community-based learning situations.

Required Resources

Teacher's Guides with lessons, videos, audiocassettes, puppets, skills posters, role-play cards, and Facilitator's Manual.

Implementation Timeline

GRAV provides detailed guides for school wide implementation. The number of lessons varies by grade level. There are 29 lessons at Grades K-3, 17 lessons at Grades 4-6, and 12 lessons at Grades 6-8, and 28 lessons at Grades 9-12.

Outcomes

Major program outcomes included:

• Experimental students demonstrated less verbal aggression than the control students and were less likely to be verbally aggressive in the future.
• Experimental students were less likely to spread rumors about a fight in the future.
• Experimental students were less likely to watch a fight in the future.
• Experimental students had more pro-social attitudes toward verbal aggressiveness and opinions relative to violence.

Contact Information

For indepth information on this program, please use the contact listed below.

In June 2003, this program was designated as a Promising Program under SAMHSA's previous National Registry of Effective Prevention Programs system

Resources

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A program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration