AG HEALEY, ROBERT KRAFT, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS PLAYERS KICKOFF SECOND PHASE OF ANTI-VIOLENCE PROGRAM AT REVERE HIGH SCHOO

AG HEALEY, ROBERT KRAFT, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS PLAYERS KICKOFF SECOND PHASE OF ANTI-VIOLENCE PROGRAM AT REVERE HIGH SCHOOL

AG Healey, Robert Kraft, Speaker DeLeo, DA Conley, Mayor Arrigo, Patriots Players, Join 1,800 Revere High School Students to Recognize Domestic Violence Awareness Month

REVERE – In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness month, Attorney General Maura Healey, New England Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft and New England Patriots Player James White joined more than 1,800 students today at Revere High School to kick off the second phase of Game Change: The Patriots Anti-Violence Partnership.

Students from Revere High School were the first to be trained as part of the second phase of the Game Change program. Throughout this fall and continuing through the remainder of the 2016-2017 school year, staff from the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society will provide direct trainings on preventing relationship violence and bystander intervention to 30 students at each of the 34 high schools throughout the state participating in the second phase of the program.

“With Game Change, we are aiming to inspire generational change by intervening at an early age and empowering high school students to treat one another with dignity and respect,” said AG Healey. “By the end of this school year, we will have trained more than one thousand students, teachers, coaches and parents across the state to recognize warning signs and prevent violence before it starts.”

“This program is about getting at the root of domestic violence before it starts and stopping the cycle. This is about teaching high school students to respect, listen to and empathize with one another,” said Mr. Kraft. “We are focused on long-term sustainable cultural change. I know that under Maura Healey’s leadership and the education provided through the MVP program that we are on our way to making a real difference.  I’m extremely grateful to the students and school officials who area already working to end teen and domestic violence.”         

Today’s all-school assembly was an opportunity for Game Change students to share what they’ve learned with the entire Revere High School community and motivate other students to join them in working to end dating violence. AG Healey, Mr. Kraft, and the students were also joined by former Patriots player and Executive Director of Community Relations for the New England Patriots Andre Tippett, Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who led the successful effort to update the domestic violence law in 2014, and Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley, whose office created the first-of-its-kind Domestic Violence Unit in 1996.

The Attorney General’s Office and the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation have also partnered to award more than $250,000 in grant funding to six sexual assault and domestic violence service organizations.

Throughout this school year, staff from each agency will work with schools in their area to implement the MVP curriculum and to ensure that appropriate policies are in place for students, families, and staff who may be experiencing or witnessing violence. The students trained at each of the 34 high schools participating in the second phase of the program with work with educators and coaches at their school, and with staff from their local domestic violence service provider to implement the MVP curriculum over the long term.

During the first phase of Game Change, which ran from January through May 2016, nearly 200 staff from 90 high schools and nine domestic violence organizations across the state were trained in the MVP curriculum.

The list of schools that participated in the first phase of Game Change is available here. For a full list of the schools participating in the second phase of the program, visit here.