APJN Receives Funding for Free Second Step Bully Prevention Classes for Athens County Elementary and Middle School Students
The Second Step Bully and Violence Prevention curriculum (cfchildren.org) is an internationally used program (reaching millions of students in 70 countries) that teaches social and emotional skills to prevent violence and bullying in schools. It teaches children skills in empathy, problem solving, impulse control, and anger management. It is story-based and includes group discussion, role-plays, interactive games, songs and puppets for younger students, and video vignettes for older children. These lessons not only improve social skills in the classroom, but they offer guidelines for effective, respectful behavior throughout a child’s lifetime.
Backed by over 29 years of research, the Second Step program has been shown to reduce aggressive behaviors and peer rejection across socioeconomic backgrounds. The most recent Second Step study, which appeared in 2005 in The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, saw that, in schools using Second Step, students were 42% less aggressive, students required 41% fewer adult interventions for minor conflicts, and teachers indicated a 78% improvement in student social competence. During the 2011-2012 school year, students at three Athens County Elementary Schools averaged between 87% and 96% on post-tests that measured social competence skills. For more research please visit, http://www.cfchildren.org/advocacy/about-us/our-story.aspx
The Second Step curriculum is 23 weeks long is typically taught once a week (between 15 and 40 minutes depending on the grade level) for the duration of the lessons. We also offer in-services to train teachers, guidance counselors and school social workers to teach the Second Step curriculum to their students.
A 6th grade girl who completed Second Step said, “I didn’t know violence wasn’t normal.” Another girl said, “The bullying stopped when we started this class.” Classes are effective and fun and help students create new norms about how they want to treat each other.
Second Step is also listed on the government’s web site as a best practice curriculum.
Funding for these free classes comes from the Athens Foundation and the Sister’s of St. Joseph’s Charitable Fund in West Virginia. Thank you funders!
For more information on free Second Step Bully Prevention classes please e-mail apjnnn@gmail.com or call 740-592-2608.
