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The Safe Havens Training Project:
Helping Teachers and Child Care Providers Support Children and Families who Witness Violence in their Communities

Safe Havens Training Project Fact Sheet

What is the Safe Havens Training Project?
The Safe Havens Training Project is a collaboration of Family Communications, Inc., (FCI), creators of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the Pennsylvania Department of Education Chapter I programs, and the AIU/Allegheny County Head Start. The goal of this national project is to provide Head Start and Chapter I staff and other groups working with preschool-age children with the training and support necessary to help children and families who are confronted with community violence.

Project Components:

Videos
The centerpiece of the project is the production of three 20-minute, documentary-style videos which feature exemplary child-care programs across the country that are coping with community violence. Specialists in early childhood education, pediatricians, community leaders, and teachers provide information on the effects of witnessing violence on children's healthy emotional development while also sharing insights into how to break the cycle of violence in their lives. Experienced staff on video tape model appropriate ways to respond to and support children who have been exposed to community violence.

In addition to providing information on the effects of witnessing violence on children, the videos will help teachers learn to recognize their own feelings concerning violence and the resources available to support them in their work.

Finally, the videos will function as a tool for engaging parents and the broader community in a discussion about how children view and react to violence and what they can do to help children feel safe and secure in the community.

Print Materials
The videos will be accompanied by a training manual to be used by individual trainees or with a group. The primary purpose of the manual is to provide trainers with lesson plans and activities to assist participants in implementing the strategies described in the videos. The manual will contain workshop outlines, time-coded scripts, participant handouts, bibliographies, and resources. Workshops will be designed to disseminate information through group discussion, role playing, lecture, and activities.

(Click on Annotations in the Community Partnerships/Community Building section of Resources for more information about the training materials)

Safe Havens Training Project
Family Communications, Inc.
4802 Fifth Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-687-2990

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Early Head Start National Resource Center @ ZERO TO THREE
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This Web site was developed for the Head Start Bureau by ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, under contract No. 105-98-2055 from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families; Administration for Children and Families; U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, to operate the Early Head Start National Resource Center.