UNI's Center for Violence Prevention Aims to Decrease Gender Violence on Iowa's Three State University Campuses
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| John Flannery, Verizon vice president government and external affairs (2nd from right) presents a check for $10,000 to Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, Annette Lynch, Center for Violence Prevention director, and University of Northern Iowa President Ben Allen. |
The University of Northern Iowa launched a new center that will house a Regents-wide campus violence training, curriculum and programming initiative focused on campus violence. The Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) will work to develop best practices for responding to and preventing interpersonal violence at Iowa's three state universities.
One of the core missions of the center is to create a regional dissemination site to share research, services and violence prevention education. Verizon's $10,000 grant will support the center's Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Leadership Institute for Violence. The program will focus on infusing violence prevention strategies into the curriculum, including the teacher education program at UNI.
"Verizon's support of UNI's new center and the Mentors in Violence Prevention program will allow us to better prepare our aspiring teachers to infuse these strategies and programs into the K through 12 classrooms," said Annette Lynch, director of UNI's CVP.
The MVP program is a gender violence, bullying and school violence approach that encourages young men and women from all socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds to take on leadership roles in their schools and communities.
"We are proud to support the University of Northern Iowa's efforts that will lead to sharing effective violence prevention strategies throughout the state and provide the research, training and tools for teachers and their students to implement a community-based response to violence prevention," said Seamus Hyland, president-Great Plains Region, Verizon Wireless. "We are committed to improving the well-being of the citizens in all the communities we serve."
