Developing Human Potential: Our Leaders of Tomorrow
Sinai POWER Violence Prevention Program
The Need
On the West Side of Chicago, children experience the effects of gangs and violence
on a daily basis. Learning how to avoid violence and manage conflict is essential
for survival. Kids need leaders and mentors--people who have had experiences
they’re likely to have, people who can teach them the best way to deal
with the challenges of living with danger and fear.
Because kids learn best from their older peers, Sinai Community Institute has created the Sinai POWER (Peers of the West Side Encouraging Response) Violence Prevention Program-- a unique program that combines leadership development with violence prevention training.
How SCI Helps
The Sinai POWER Program is youth leadership program AND a violence prevention
program which trains high school students to lead and teach violence prevention
to elementary school children.
High-school youth play a pivotal role in planning and implementing the Sinai POWER Program. Annually, Fifteen high school students are recruited and trained to serve as Peer Educators to teach a violence prevention curriculum to elementary school students. The training for the high school students consists of 30 hours of course work over an 8-week period. Because many of these students are from low-income households, and must work an after-school job, SCI pays each peer educator a stipend to commit their after-school time to the POWER Program.
After the Peer Educators and Co-facilitators have completed the training, they are paired off and assigned to groups of 4th through 6th graders whom they teach in the after-school, play-based Sinai POWER Program. The program is being offered at seven local elementary schools and serves over 200 students per year. Students meet once a week for 10 weeks, for a total of 30 hours of programming. Through role-playing, music, dance and writing, students develop positive, non-violent attitudes towards themselves, their peers and their communities, and gain the problem solving and conflict-resolution skills needed to avoid unsafe situations.
