“Say Something” The Power of Youth protecting themselves and their peers

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Jim W. Wise, Sandy Hook Promise FoundationFollow
Carleen Wray, Sandy Hook Promise FoundationFollow
Annie Stephens, Sandy Hook Promise FoundationFollow
Erika Latines, Sandy Hook Promise FoundationFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Sandy Hook Promise Foundation

First Presenter’s Email Address

jim.wise@sandyhookpromise.org

First Presenter's Brief Biography

SAVE Promise Club Manager, Jim Wise LCSW. Jim is a retired School Social Worker with over 30 years, working with Middle and High Schools in North Carolina. He has also been actively involved with SAVE Promise Clubs as an advisor and Board Member for over 25 years.

Location

Session Three Breakouts (Scarbrough 1)

Strand #1

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Strand #2

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Relevance

The Say Something program relates directly to the “Hands: Safety and Violence Prevention” strand for the National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. The Say Something program teaches students and staff a three step process to protect themselves, their classmates and their schools from harmful acts. The steps are: Recognize The Signs, Act Immediately, Take It Seriously and Say Something to a Trusted Adult or through an Anonymous Reporting System.

Brief Program Description

Say Something from the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation program teaches students and staff a three step process to protect themselves, their classmates and schools from harmful acts. The steps are Recognize the Signs, Act Immediately, Take It Seriously and Say Something to a Trusted Adult or through an Anonymous Reporting System. When students are empowered to Say Something they help create safer and healthier schools and communities.

Summary

Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) is a national nonprofit organization with a mission to end school shootings and create a culture change that prevents violence and other harmful acts that hurt children. Through its life-saving, evidence-informed Know the Signs prevention programs, SHP educates and empowers youth and adults to recognize, intervene, and get help for individuals who may be socially isolated and/or at risk of hurting themselves or others. Through nonpartisan policy and partnerships, SHP advances gun safety, youth mental health, and violence prevention education at the state and federal levels that protect all children from gun violence in their schools, homes, and communities. SHP is led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.   Through nonpartisan policy and partnerships, SHP advances gun safety, youth mental health, and violence prevention education at the state and federal levels that protect all children from gun violence in their schools, homes, and communities.

Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) was founded following the death of a student by gun violence in Charlotte, NC in 1989. In 2017 Sandy Hook Promise merged with SAVE and since then SAVE Promise Clubs have been a major vehicle to sustain violence prevention messages in schools across the country with over 3400 clubs in 49 states.

Sandy Hook Promise’s no-cost Say Something program teaches middle and high school students to recognize the warning signs of someone at-risk of hurting themselves or others and how to say something to a trusted adult to get help.

The Say Something program will seamlessly align with any school’s existing social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, instruction, and programming. Students build essential SEL competencies, including how to empathize with others and seek help when needed (relationship skills) and how to identify problems and analyze situations, as well solve problems in an ethically-responsible manner (responsible decision-making). This proven, life-saving program is available to schools and youth organizations nationwide at no cost.

The Sandy Hook Promise staff will give an overview of the Say Something students' presentation and discuss best practices for implementation and sustaining the program. Following the initial student presentation there are additional activities and steps that we will share with participants. These follow up activities include conversations about what it means to be an upstander, who can be trusted adults and discussions about taking another’s view. Other steps that reinforce and sustain Say Something include starting a SAVE Promise Club to put the leadership into the hands of students. If students are delivering Say Something messages to their peers we know that they will resonate more powerfully and have a greater impact on school and community climate.

Evidence

We know that many students are impacted by violence or behaviors that are harmful to themselves or others. For instance, 1 in 5 students reported being bullied in 2015 (1). One out of every six high school students seriously considered suicide in 2018 (2). From 1970 – 2019 there were an average of 33 school shootings per year (3). Research shows that 87% of school shooters planned their attacks in advance (4). Also, 70% of people who die by suicide tell someone of their plans or give some other warning sign (5).

In all these instances there might have been opportunities for someone to notice these warning signs and report them and get these individuals' help. From our own internal statistics from schools that are participating in Say Something we have documents at least 257 lives saved, over 2100 students that got help for a mental health related issue and over 60,000 tips that have been submitted and over 12,000,000 students and adults trained in Say Something. We have received many testimonials from school administrators, staff, parents and students letting us know how having the Say Something program in their school and community is an important part of creating safer and healthier environments.

Research citations

1. U.S. Department of Education. “Students Reports of Bullying: Results From the 2015 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey.” National Center for Education Statistics. December 2016. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017015.pdf

1. CDC. "Percentage of U.S. High School Students Who Have Seriously Considered Attempting Suicide as of 2017, by Gender and Ethnicity." Statista, Statista Inc., 15 Jun 2018, https://www.statista.com/statistics/222126/us-students-who-considered-attempting-suicide-by-gender-and-ethnicity/

1. CHDS. "Number of K-12 School Shootings in The United States from 1970 to June 10, 2019." Statista, Statista Inc., 10 Jun 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/971473/number-k-12-school-shootings-us/

1. Hobbs, Tawnell D. “Three Decades of School Shootings: an Analysis”. Wall Street Journal, 19 April 2019. https://www.wsj.com/graphics/school-shooters-similarities/

1. Robins, E., Gassner, S, Kayes, J, Wilkinson, R., & Murphy, G., (1959). The communication of suicidal intent: A study of 134 consecutive cases of successful (completed) suicide. Am. J. Psychiatry. 115, 724- 733

Learning Objective 1

Reinforce the principles of the Say Something training with follow-up engagement lessons: Identify warning signs using a Public Service Announcement. (SEL competency: Responsible Decision-Making) Identify the Trusted Adult(s) that they can go to for help when warning signs and threats are encountered. (SEL competency: Relationship Skills)

Learning Objective 2

Implement an action plan that rolls-out the Say Something program cycle.

Learning Objective 3

Train students in the Say Something program.

Presentation Year

2022

Start Date

3-7-2022 2:45 PM

End Date

3-7-2022 4:00 PM

Recommended Citation

Wise, Jim W.; Wray, Carleen; Stephens, Annie; and Latines, Erika, "“Say Something” The Power of Youth protecting themselves and their peers" (2022). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 129.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2022/2022/129