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"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Cleveland, Ohio
| Partners: | Cleveland Municipal School District Cuyahoga County Mental Health Board City of Cleveland Police Department | |
Project SYNERGY will serve high-risk students and families in 10 elementary schools, five middle schools, and five high schools in one of America's largest cities. Almost half of Cleveland's population is African American; half are non-Hispanic white. 32% of families live at or below poverty level, and 80% of students receive free or reduced lunch. Violence and crime are high in the city. 80% of elementary school students in Cleveland reported that they had seen someone else beaten up at school, and 40% had seen someone being shot at.
In addition to the primary partners, this initiative engages the support and collaboration of a wide array of other public entities as well as community-based and faith-based institutions, including the Cuyahoga County Family and Children First Council, Cleveland Public Library, Catholic Charities, Mt. Sinai Baptist Ministries, and the Partnership for a Safer Cleveland.
Project SYNERGY will incorporate early childhood psychosocial and emotional development services by joining an existing county-wide comprehensive plan for providing information and services to all families with children from birth to age five. Specifically, the project will expand an existing effort to enhance parents' roles as teachers and to support the transition to kindergarten, through a research-tested approach. For elementary, middle and secondary school students, the project will implement several drug and violence prevention strategies, including a program designed to influence social norms and strengthen social skills (at all participating schools). In addition, several targeted prevention efforts will be initiated, including a school-based peer mentoring project for at-risk youth and a community-based school engagement project for high risk youth and their families. The partners will also provide a part-time mental health intervention specialist to reduce the mental health consequences of exposure to violence and victimization. The specialists will also establish an intervention assistance team in each of the participating schools to screen and assess students who have health, emotional, behavioral or learning concerns. The school district will also undertake a thorough review and revision of existing safety and disciplinary policies. Additional teacher professional development will be offered in mental health, as well as drug and violence prevention. As part of the district's ongoing reform efforts, the project will expand instructional time and after-school activities that provide educational, prevention and mentoring services to participating youth. Finally, Project SYNERGY will provide additional training to school security personnel and establish after school neighborhood support teams comprised of police, school staff and school security personnel.
The initiative will be evaluated by the Institute for the Prevention of Violence at Kent State University, using a systematic outcome and process-based evaluation design.
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[Columbus, Ohio]