Brochure
SPAVA
1939 Goldsmith Lane
Suite 139
Louisville, KY 40218
(502) 386-4466
Click
for the original .pdf file for the brochure.
Here are excerpts from the brochure if you can not read the .pdf.
By
hard work, belief in yourself, and never giving up, you will accomplish
much. But never forget your roots and where you came from. Larry
Franklin, SPAVA Board President RADM United States Navy
What I like about SPAVA is that it is a small organization that has made
a big impact on children of Jefferson County. Almost all the money we
get goes for scholarships for kids who earn them by proving that they
have gotten the message that disagreements can be resolved without
aggressive behavior or violence.
Mr. Tim O'Mara Attorney, Secretary of SPAVA
Through the performance of short, role-playing skits, SPAVA is teaching
our bullies how much they hurt other people's feelings, and SPAVA is
also teaching the victims how to speak up for themselves instead of
reacting to the bullies and resorting to violence.
Martha Dodge, Teacher Our Lady of Mount Carmel School
Now
I can even respect people that usually don't like.
Student
Timir
Banerjee, M.D. SPAVA Founder and Mentor
Mentors excitedly report what they have done in
sessions with students; they comment on how eagerly kids volunteered
their feelings and jumped into role-playing real conflicts to rework
solutions that would not be violent or abusive. Many mentors also create
their own materials posters, "business cards" listing the steps of a
problem-solving method, a "feelings" matching game in their enthusiasm
to help kids "get it". While chaos and dis-ruptions occur in sessions,
so do plentiful demonstrations of students volunteering to
problem-solve, to read aloud about peacemakers, to tell how they can or
did show com-passion and kindness toward others. SPAVA a unique and
valuable supplement to school curriculum al so permits teachers to share
personal tales involving such emotions as anger and pride in this group
effort to learn to work out problems in our lives together with respect.
Judy Lippmann, SPAVA Coordinator Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS)
Volunteer Talent
PREFACE SPAVA, a proactive antiviolence program, was founded to promote
respect, honor, and integrity among our youth. Soon after the Heath High
School disaster occurred in Western Kentucky, the SPAVA Board of
Directors thought that community members, acting as mentors, could help
our public-, parochial-, and private-school students learn to be
successful through acquiring effective communication skills and through
learning to disagree respectfully. The mentors would share the ways in
which they transcended personal failures in their own lives and their
techniques for confronting stressful situations. The mission of this
organization is to positively influence our youth by demonstrating care,
love, compassion, and charity to help foster a healthier future for
everyone. The mentors challenge the students to act and feel like
Mahatma Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the mentors explain
the importance of expressing gratitude and of collaborating despite our
differences. SPAVA helps raise the self-esteem of our youth, helps them
become empathetic, and helps them recognize the need to control their
impulses and to delay their gratification. Through classroom
conversation, SPAVA mentors teach that we just can't do "what feels
good" all the time because we "can't have everything we want at once."
The organization's curriculum emphasizes that students' sense of
entitlement should never overshadow their sense of civility. It is
through working hard and maintaining a positive attitude that most
successful people achieve their goals and dreams though they may fail
many times. A peacemaker is some one who makes sure the world is just
right who helps you with what you need.
Student
Timir Banerjee, M.D. SPAVA Founder and Mentor
A peacemaker is some one who makes sure the world is just right who
helps you with what you need. Student
SPAVA MISSION
SPAVA'S mission is to help create a nonviolent society by being role
models for the younger generation.
SPAVA Goals
• To promote respect, honor, and integrity among students • To help
students recognize and understand feelings • To develop anger-management
skills among students • To help students recognize the characteristics
of famous men and women of peace Anticipated Student Outcomes • Decrease
in inappropriate classroom behaviors, including exhibiting lack of
respect • Reduction in out-of-school suspensions • Increase in school
attendance • Improvement in academic performance and attitude toward
school • Ability to apply problem-solving skills to resolve conflict
without violence
When
conflicts came up in the classroom, we'd use STAR (the problem-solving
method). Teacher
An
important thing I learned was how to control my temper and to handle
tough situations. Student
OUR HISTORY
Following the 1997 shootings at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky,
SPAVA's founder, Timir Banerjee, M.D., decided to address the problem of
adolescents' lack of respect by developing a program to help youth value
respect, honor, and integrity and to help youth cope with diffi culties
and confl ict without fighting. In Dr. Banerjee's words, "We want our
children to learn to negotiate and arbitrate and discuss and think fi
rst rather than pull out a gun. We will be our brothers' keeper ... We
want to promote the positive. That good within each of us has to be
promoted. We want to help each student feel as though he or she is an
A-quality human being. If I feel like I'm an A, I treat others as A's."
Thus, in 1999, the fi rst SPAVA Board of Directors was organized and
began meeting. SPAVA obtained a nonprofi t, tax-exempt status and
recruited community sup port from Jefferson County Public Schools
(JCPS), the Archdiocese of Louisville, Junior Achievement, the
University of Louisville (U of L), and Walden Theatre. SPAVA procured
publicity via newspaper ads, a citywide proclamation by Louisville's
mayor for SPAVA Day on the day of a SPAVA public walk in Cherokee Park,
a booth at the Kentucky State Fair, a video shown at U of L ball games,
and sponsorship of 1,400 tickets for the Walden Theatre play entitled
Bang, Bang, and You're Dead. Under the auspices of the JCPS Student
Relations and Safety Office, the Volunteer Talent Center (VTC) became
SPAVA's coordinator and began recruiting and training local volunteer
mentors. In October 1999, mentors began their work in classes at seven
schools and added another 22 classes at 15 additional JCPS schools the
following February. In SPAVA's fi rst year, a total of 23 active
volunteers served as mentors. The mentors worked with students in these
public schools and in additional private and parochial schools by con
ducting fi ve one-hour sessions over a five-week period. They also began
creating SPAVA clubs so that groups of students could continue their
work with an adult mentor beyond their classroom sessions. According to
Scott Furkin, one of SPAVA's original mentors, SPAVA "is a program that
we take into the schools to help kids learn to control anger, to manage
conflict, to diffuse stressful situations, and to channel their energy
and aggressiveness into positive outlets." The informal classroom
discussions also defi ned and stressed the signifi cance of such
concepts as courtesy, honesty, dignity, justice, knowledge,
responsibility, and self-discipline. SPAVA established an annual
scholarship program for SPAVA students for which it raised and awarded
funds for post-high-school education. Also, SPAVA required its students
to engage in service projects in order to spread SPAVA's messages to
others. The develop ment and evolution of SPAVA's curriculum and methods
of evaluation continue to refl ect the suggestions and recommendations
of all involved with the program.
OUR PROGRAM
The SPAVA Program, coordinated through JCPS VTC, is presented by trained
volunteer mentors in ten weekly, 45-minute sessions to individual
classes of students in P1 (kindergarten) through grade twelve and their
teachers. In additional local parochial and private schools, the SPAVA
Program is presented on a similar basis. School and Student Selection
SPAVA is geared toward regular classes of students in P1 (kindergarten)
through grade twelve and their teachers. At the beginning of each
academic year, we broadcast in the JCPS district wide newsletter (Monday
Memo) information about the SPAVA Program and its availability to
schools. Requests for SPAVA can come from principals, counselors,
individual teachers, and other staff members. Also, specific teachers/
principals who have had the SPAVA Program in the past and have requested
it again are contacted, and these requests are verified and honored. Dr.
Banerjee personally contacts various parochial and private schools to
offer the program and to verify prior requests. The implementation of
the pro gram in requesting schools and classes, however, depends on the
availability of trained, volunteer mentors. Mentor Recruitment and
Training Adult volunteers are recruited from the local community at
large and from a local university to serve as mentors in the SPAVA
Program. Dr. Banerjee always has been the chief recruiter, and he
recruits mentors by talking with friends and people in his professional
community, with public officials, with members of church communities,
with Rotary Club members, with people in waiting lines at post offices,
and with faculty and staff members at U of L, among others. The VTC also
has recruited as mentors Ameri Corps* VISTA workers, VTC employees, and
U of L Panhellenic Council members. Teachers and others familiar with
SPAVA informally recruit on a continuing basis. The VTC seeks to retain
all mentors year after year because the pro gram depends on the
availability of volunteer mentors. Two-hour training sessions at the VTC
are required for new volunteer mentors and are offered to returning
mentors as needed. After mentors become acquainted with one another, the
history, purpose, and goals of SPAVA are presented, as well as a review
of the suggested curriculum and of additional re sources available at
the VTC for use by mentors. Mentors complete a state-required background
check form that is then processed to allow them to work with students in
the public schools. Mentors also indicate their grade-level preference
of the student with whom they wish to work, the dates and times they
wish to work, the date they can begin to mentor, and their preference
for working alone or with a partner SPAVA mentor. While the proposed
ten-week curriculum can be followed as suggested, mentors are encouraged
to adapt les sons and to share their personal experiences that are
related to discussion topics as they see fit. A chief strength in SPAVA
is the mentor's relationship with his or her students. The key
requirement is that the four goals of SPAVA be achieved.
I use things I learned in SPAVA to deal with confrontations in the
hallway, in the cafeteria, and at the buses. __ Teacher
I think a real benefit to students was learning that it's okay to get
angry and learning safe ways to deal with anger. __ Mentor
What I like about SPAVA is that it is a small organization that has made
a big impact on children of Jefferson County. Almost all the money we
get goes for scholarships for kids who earn them by proving that they
have gotten the message that disagreements can be resolved without
aggressive behavior or violence.
Mr. Tim O'Mara Attorney, Secretary of SPAVA
