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Dr. David Hopson |
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October 15 , 2007 Gateway continues to look for ways to meet student needs outside of the formal classroom setting including working with community partners. While we do not enjoy access to the high number of community partners compared to our suburban/urban counterparts, we do benefit greatly from the active involvement of those partners we do have. One of those partners is the Southern Hilltowns Domestic Violence Task Force, which has been working with students and staff at Gateway Regional High School to promote healthy dating relationships among students. Using a “social norms” approach (determining what people actually do rather than what people assume is happening)—and grant funding through HUD and a Community Development Block Grant—the Task Force has developed a strong campaign at the high school. It began with a survey of 349 high school students in January of 2006, to measure the beliefs and experiences of our students around healthy relationships. Task Force members then worked with randomly selected student focus groups to pull out key messages to promote healthy dating relationships. Examples include “9 out of 10 Gateway girls agree: I want to make my decisions about what I do and who I hang out with”, “97% of Gateway Guys Agree, No Means No”, “4 out of 5 Gateway guys really don’t want to hear trash talk about girls—and here’s what they do about it…”. These “key” messages were put onto colorful posters, many of which featured art work and graphic design of Gateway students. We are especially grateful to Monica Moran and Sarah Beard from the task force for their ongoing work with the high school. They have worked with art teacher Kara Kitchen and advanced art students at Gateway in producing winning designs, with student focus groups to select the campaign messages and designs, and with district administrators to ensure that all relevant policies and protocols are followed. The grants secured by the task force have also paid for consultation from national social norms leader Alan Berkowitz, stipends to student artists and focus group members, and the costs of printing the surveys and resulting posters. Moran and Berkowitz also presented on the Gateway campaign at the National Conference on the Social Norms Approach last July. Based upon student input, Moran and Beard are seeking students at each grade level to work with them to provide an additional layer of student involvement and leadership in the campaign. In time, the original survey will be given again to measure any changes in student beliefs and behaviors on healthy relationships. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the Gateway Regional School District is grateful for our ongoing partnership with the Southern Hilltowns Domestic Violence Task Force and their work to promote healthy, positive dating relationships at the high school. ### |
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