The
CMHS Approach to Enhancing Youth Resilience and
Preventing Youth Violence in Schools and Communities
For
more information contact: Bernard S. Arons, M.D., Director, Center for
Mental Health Services,
The Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 17-105, Rockville, Maryland
20857
1-800-789-2647 • www.mentalhealth.org
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
The Need for Resilience Enhancing and Violence Prevention Initiatives
Understanding Youth Violence
Patterns of Adolescent Violence
Perspectives on Violence
Risk and Protective Factors and Processes
Ethnic Minority and Cultural Issues
The Public Health Approach to Enhancing Resilience and Preventing Violence in Schools and Communities
Preventing Violent Behaviors–Mental Health Interventions
The Role of Schools
How to Intervene: What Programs Work?
What Are the Issues?
Evidence-Based Interventions
Conclusion
Appendixes
Exhibit 1—Model and Promising Programs
Exhibit 2—Evidence-Based Programs That Foster Resilience
Exhibit 3—Exemplary, Model, and Promising Programs to Strengthen Families
Bibliography
Conclusion
In 1840, Alexis de Tocqueville, the renowned international commentator on American society, noted in Democracy in America:
Americans are a peculiar people… If, in a local community, a citizen becomes aware of a human need that is not met, he thereupon discusses the situation with his neighbors. Suddenly a committee comes into existence. The committee thereupon begins to operate on behalf of the need, and a new function is established. It is like watching a miracle.
The CMHS “committee,” which has integrated knowledge from both the resilience and violence prevention fields in developing its youth violence prevention initiative, encourages the development of similar community-based committees of children, families, schools, and community representatives. If such local committees are created to implement evidence-based programs which operate on behalf of the need of children, it will be, in the words of de Tocqueville, “like watching a miracle.”
