Engaging Youth in Injury and Violence Prevention:

Teaching & Learning with Community

Community Toolkit:

Introduction to Program

In the spring and summer of 2022, Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center’s (HIPRC’s) Outreach Core partnered with ACE Academy to support an engaged learning opportunity in injury and violence prevention for its early high school summer program (students transitioning from 8th to 9th grade). The program included four 60-90 minute presentations engaging the students in thinking and learning about four topics chosen by ACE Academy leadership:

  • Mental health and suicide prevention
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Water safety and drowning prevention
  • Gun violence

The program also included a helmet and life jacket giveaway program for youth and their families at the program’s end of summer celebration.

The purpose of the program was to:

  • To offer role models (professionals of color) who could share their life and career paths with the students
  • To educate the students about injury and violence prevention, with a focus on communities of color
  • To engage the students in hands-on, critical thinking exercises relevant to injury and violence prevention
  • To provide tools and resources the students could use to make their lives and the lives of their families and friends safer

How do you build a program?

Key Program Components

  • Partnering with an organization serving middle and/or high school students
    • HIPRC committed to partnering with an organization serving youth within communities disproportionately affected by injury and violence. This organization serves young men of color through year-long and summer educational programs. Other organizations that might provide similar opportunities include schools, youth after school organizations (e.g., Boys and Girls Club), faith-based organizations.
  • Identifying injury and violence prevention topics
    • Asking the partnering organization to choose the presentation topics is an important component of the co-design process and helped build the program partnership.
    • The community partner chose the following four topics for its presentation series:
      • Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
      • Intimate Partner Violence
      • Drowning Prevention and Water Safety
      • Gun Violence
  • Identifying speakers
    • Finding speakers who match with the program’s preferences and goals is important. The community partner requested that the presenters ideally be men of color since they wanted to share role models with their students, who are all young men of color.
    • HIPRC used a recruitment email (Email Sample) to reach out through its network (e.g., collaborating organizations, medical, physician assistant, and graduate student programs) to find individuals interested in this volunteer teaching opportunity.
    • The HIPRC project leads (a faculty member and coordinator) met with each interested presenter to share more about the program, to learn about the interested presenter, their interests and experiences, and to determine whether there was a mutual fit for the program.
    • The final group of volunteer presenters who donated their time to building and leading presentations included:
      • Physician assistant students,
      • Physicians,
      • An English professor, writer,  and University leader,
      • A writer and a life coach
  • Creating a team of presenters and content experts
    • Building a team of presenters and content experts can ensure that a full complement of expertise and support is available for creating effective, evidence-based presentations.
    • The presenters self-selected which of the four topics they were most interested in presenting. Some presenters worked with a partner presenter; some chose to present alone.
    • HIPRC identified content experts who shared expertise and materials with the presenters for each of the four topic areas (see the presentations section for more information). These HIPRC content experts did not present to the students.
Best Practice
  • Offering the interactive presentations
    • The four presentations were delivered in-person to the students during the community partner’s one-month summer program.
    • The program asked for a weekly presentation at the same time each week, but the final schedule required flexibility, and was developed based on the availability of the presenters and the community partner’s schedule.
    • There was no set order of the presentations.
  • Linking a giveaway event with the presentation series
    • The community partner held a celebration event at the end of the program for the students and their families. HIPRC offered and was invited to attend the celebration event to hold a bike helmet and life jacket giveaway.
    • HIPRC worked with collaborating organizations to provide free bike helmets to the whole family, and free life jackets to anyone under 18.
    • The students and families were notified ahead of time of the giveaway (Event Giveaway Flyer).
    • At the event, the students and their families were fitted for the items, provided with safety tips, and educated on how to ensure proper fit and care of the items. (Bike Helmet Safety Tips, Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Water Safety for Families sheet).

 

What are the logistics?

HIPRC resources used to conduct the Injury and Violence Prevention Educational Program

There were two program leads – a faculty member and a staff coordinator.

  • The HIPRC faculty member and coordinator spent time on this program in five main ways:
    • Pre-program planning: Virtual meetings with the community partner program leaders
      • About 6 hours in communications and meetings for pre-program planning
    • Speaker and content expert recruitment
      • About 5 hours in communications and meetings with potential presenters and content experts
    • Virtual planning meetings with presenters and content experts, and assisting with presentation development
      • About 10 hours for meetings and communications
      • About 15 hours for creating and supporting presentations
    • Materials gathering and development
      • About 4 hours for materials gathering, development, and communications
    • Event giveaway planning and hosting
      • About 6 hours for event preparation communications and meetings
      • About 5 hours on the day of event

  • Printed materials
    • Program information sheet for presenters and content experts
    • Presentation schedule
    • Resource sheets g.: resources for mental health services.
    • Tailored for each presentation evaluation forms
    • Pre-presentation questionnaire
    • Student response to pre-presentation questionnaire for each presenter
    • Activity or in-session sheets (g. short play scripts).
    • Debrief interview guide with presenters and content experts
    • Debrief interview guide with educational program leaders and teachers
  • Digital materials
    • Recruitment email
    • PowerPoint for program kick-off with presenters and content experts
    • PowerPoint introduction of program to students
    • PowerPoint presentations for each topic
  • Materials for a hands-on drowning prevention activity – The drowning prevention and water safety presentation taught the students how to make milk jug flotation devices (one gallon plastic jugs, rope, water, and bucket).
  • Prizes for participation during the presentations – candy, band-aids, books
  • Giveaway – helmets, life jackets, resource sheets, liability waiver

  • Candy / Band-Aid prizes
  • Plastic jugs and rope
  • Staff Time
  • Giveaway Materials

TImeline

Presentations

HIPRC faculty, fellows, and staff provided support to the speakers throughout planning and on the day of the presentations.

Preparing for the interactive presentations:

  • Presenters
    • Provide culturally relevant educators as a resource that can provide expertise to both presenters and content experts in age-appropriate educational methods, how to reach students through presentation strategies, and review of the developed presentations.
  • Pair presenters with 1-2 HIPRC content experts
    • Identify 1-2 content experts who can provide slides for presentation on the topic (especially with local statistics), offer expertise on presenting to this age group, and brainstorm on presentation content.
Lessons Learned
  • Meet as a group virtually to introduce all presenters and content experts to the program, and to provide program logistics. (Intro PPT)
    • When meeting with the community partner prior to the start of the program, the program lead shared some tips and best practices for the presenters to incorporate in their presentations. (Presentation Best Practices & Tips)
  • Meet with individual topic area presenters and content experts to brainstorm and plan presentation content
    • HIPRC faculty member and coordinator attend each meeting to help guide the conversation and take notes. The pairings share their experience in this topic area, and what their initial thoughts and ideas for the presentation are.
  • Gather student input prior to the presentation
    • Please see the below pre-presentation student preparation and input section.
Lesson Learned
  • Provide presenters with a draft PowerPoint presentation outline
    • During each initial topic planning meeting, the HIPRC coordinator documents the outline of the presentation that is developed and records the presenter and content expert to-do’s.
    • The HIPRC coordinator uses the outline from the meeting to develop a PowerPoint template for the presenters to use as a guide when gathering their materials and creating their presentation.
    • The HIPRC coordinator and faculty member share what other presenters are doing for their presentations with the others to share ideas across the groups.
  • Provide content for the presentation
    • The HIPRC faculty member and coordinator help develop the presentation, using information from the content experts and finding content as requested by the presenter. Please see the development of presentation content section below.
  • Iterate the PowerPoint presentation
    • The HIPRC faculty member and coordinator review each presentation and provide feedback. Please see the development of presentation content section below.
  • Gather materials for the day of the presentation
    • Resource sheet
      • Each presentation has a resource sheet to leave with the students after the presentations that HIPRC faculty and coordinator co-develop with the presenters and content experts. (Example: Resource Sheet)
    • Prizes
      • The presenters determine what prizes to promote engagement during their presentation. HIPRC procures and supplies the prizes for each presentation.
    • Equipment
      • Some presentations need equipment during their presentation (e.g., water safety presentation and life jackets). HIPRC procures and supplies the necessary equipment.
    • Evaluation
      • Each presentation has a student evaluation form specific to each topic for the students to complete after the presentation. The HIPRC faculty member and coordinator create this evaluation form based on the planned PowerPoint content, share it with the presenters for review and feedback, and finalize the version to print and bring on the presentation day.
  • Bring materials to community partner program site on presentation day
    • HIPRC brings all printed materials, prizes, and equipment to the educational program location on each presentation day.

  • During the first individual topic area presentation planning meeting, HIPRC collaborates with the presenters and content experts to brainstorm questions (Pre-Presentations Questions) that will be asked of the students prior to their presentation. These questions help introduce the students to the topics, get them thinking about what they already know, what they would like to learn, and what questions they have for the presenters. The presenters also ask questions about the students more generally.
  • The HIPRC coordinator creates an introductory PowerPoint for the community partner organization to introduce the students to the learning partnership, to the presenters, to the topics, and to the end of program giveaway event. At the end of the presentation, which is presented by the community partner staff, the students complete the pre-presentation student input form. (Intro PPT to Students)
  • The HIPRC coordinator reviews the completed input forms, summarizes the answers, and provides responses to each of the paired presenters/content experts to use in developing the presentation content. The responses help the presenters understand the students and develop content relevant to the students.
Lessons Learned

  • Content experts provide presenters with PowerPoint slides that include relevant national, regional, and local statistics, background information on the topic area, and other resources as indicated.
  • Presenters develop the flow of their PowerPoint presentations (e.g., giving students time for reflection and engagement), what activities they are going to lead, and what additional information they need for their presentation.
  • The HIPRC coordinator assists the presenters in collating materials, developing slides, and compiling information gathered from the content experts into the PowerPoint presentation.
  • Presenters and HIPRC faculty members and staff iterate the PowerPoint presentation several times, with HIPRC personnel providing feedback and adding resources as needed. The HIPRC coordinator shares the presentation with the community partner program lead for review roughly 1 week prior to the planned presentation.
Presentation Tips

 

HIPRC’s role in evaluation is to:

  • Facilitate student evaluations of the individual presentations from the perspective of the students
  • Conduct an evaluation of the program and its process as well as HIPRC’s support services from the perspective of the presenters and content experts
  • Seek input on the program and its process from the perspective of the community partner

Students evaluate each presentation:

Lesson Learned

Presenters and HIPRC content experts provide feedback on the presentations as well as on the program and its process:

  • After all presentations are completed, the HIPRC faculty member and coordinator use a feedback guide (Presenters Feedback Guide) in group debrief meetings via Zoom with the presenters and content experts to learn about their experiences in the classroom – what went well, what could be improved, and any additional feedback or suggestions for the program. HIPRC provides the presenters and content experts with the feedback guide before and after the debrief meetings so they can provide written feedback outside of the meetings.

The community partner is asked for feedback on the program:

  • After all presentations and the giveaway event are completed, the HIPRC faculty member and coordinator ask for feedback using a feedback guide (Community Partner Feedback Guide) in a Zoom meeting with the community partners to learn what went well, what could be improved, and any additional feedback or suggestions for the program. HIPRC also provides the partners with the feedback guide before the debrief meeting, and invites the community partners to provide any written feedback they would like.

HIPRC distributes the evaluation and takes the next steps:

  • After the program is completed, the HIPRC coordinator compiles the results from the student evaluations and creates a summary sheet of the results to share with each presenter. The summary sheet includes an average of the scores rated with a Likert scale and individual responses for the questions about what the students learned and what they wanted to share with the presenter/s.
  • After the debrief meetings with the presenters and content experts, HIPRC compiles the feedback related to what went well, what could be improved, and suggestions for future programs.
  • This feedback is used to refine the program and its processes, and this toolkit reflects this refined program and the recommendations made by presenters, content experts, and the community partner.

All resources linked for downloaded.

Building a Program

Building Engaging Presentations

  • Introductory PowerPoint for Presenters/content experts to introduce them to program
  • Introductory PowerPoint To Students to introduce them to the program and presenters
  • Pre-presentations questions asked of students to introduce them to topics and identify their interests
  • Activity or in-session sheets (e.g., short play script)
  • Materials for a hands-on drowning prevention activity – The drowning prevention and water safety presentation taught the students how to make milk jug flotation devices (one gallon plastic jugs, rope, water, and bucket).
  • Best practices and tips for developing engaging presentations from community partner
  • Resource Sheet by topic to be distributed to students after presentations

Evaluation