U of S PhD Student to Launch Violence Reduction Program in High Schools
Posted May 11, 2005
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 11, 2005 2005-05-12-ED
U of S PhD Student to Launch Violence Reduction Program in High Schools
Shannon Dobko, a University of Saskatchewan graduate student in educational
administration, has been chosen to implement a national anti-violence pilot
project called The Fourth R: Relationship-Based Violence Prevention.
"The Fourth R is designed to educate students about high-risk behaviours
such as substance abuse and about ways to reduce all forms of violence,"
says Dobko. "The program is unique in that it is specifically designed for
high school students whereas other similar programs are typically aimed at
elementary school children."
Dobko was selected to run the pilot project by RESOLVE (Research and
Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse), a U of S research centre.
The project will operate through a partnership with RESOLVE and the
Saskatoon East, Saskatoon West, Saskatoon Catholic, Saskatoon Public, and
Saskatchewan Valley school divisions, as well as Saskatoon District Health.
Saskatoon is one of only two sites in Canada to implement the pilot program.
On May 17, a training workshop on how to implement The Fourth R program will
take place in the Gathercole Room, Saskatoon Public School Board office,
from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. About 35 teachers, health region
representatives, and education administrators will participate. The workshop
will consist of lectures on violence, a presentation of background
information on the program, and role-playing sessions. This training
workshop is open to the media.
In September, Dobko will coordinate the launch in four high schools in and
around Saskatoon: Marion M. Graham Collegiate, Delisle Composite, Warman
High School and Clavet Composite. By the third year of the pilot program, 20
schools from the five school divisions in and around Saskatoon will be
participating.
Dobko's work implementing the program for RESOLVE will dovetail with her
doctoral work in educational administration. She will study the impact of
The Fourth R program to see what influence it has on the prevention and
reduction of violence and on student engagement - meaning how much students
feel actively and emotionally involved in their education and how much they
feel a sense of belonging at school. Dobko will use a portion of the data
obtained to write her doctoral thesis.
RESOLVE receives core funding from the Prairieaction Foundation which
supports similar research centres in Alberta and Manitoba and which runs a
national community research grants program annually.
Funding for The Fourth R program comes from The Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health (CAMH), a leading addiction and mental health teaching
hospital in London, Ontario. It has provided $250,000 to RESOLVE to roll out
the pilot project in Saskatoon and area over the next three years.
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For more information, contact:
Shannon Dobko
Fourth R Coordinator - Saskatchewan
(306) 343-0208 or 668-7559
shannon.dobko@swsd42.sk.ca
http://www.thefourthr.ca/
or
Jennifer W. Webber
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-1474
jennifer.webber@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research
