The issue of youth violence in America is staggering and, at times, even overwhelming. If you are in touch with the news regularly, you will notice a new form of tragedy brimming in our world. Be it mass murders, school shootings, homicides, or suicides – youth around us are struggling. And we are clearly failing our children.
Far too many families have had to deal with the trauma of losing a young child to violence. Far too many children have had to face the brunt of violence in their early years. Incidents of youth violence have been increasing around the world. It has caused countries globally to rethink violence protection strategies and look for newer measures to curb violence.
National Youth Violence Prevention Week is a global initiative marked every year from April 24-28. Sponsored and supported by the National Association of Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) and Sandy Hook Promise, National Youth Violence Prevention Week is dedicated to directing our attention toward preventive strategies to curb youth violence. It aims to generate a consolidated global effort to tackle the issue head-on and ensure a safe future for all our little ones.
This National Youth Violence Prevention Week, let us see what we can do to prevent and curb violence at our own level.
Effective Strategies To Deal With Youth Violence
The movement of National Youth Violence Prevention Week needs active cooperation from individuals from all walks of life. While there are institutions in place to take preventive measures, the issue of youth violence is so widespread that it needs as many active helping hands as possible.
Apart from advocating for youth violence prevention programs, here are some potent ways for you to join the fight against youth violence.
1. Have meaningful and encouraging conversations with the young people in your life.
A supportive relationship with an adult is one of the most important things a child needs to be stable while growing up. These strong relationships provide safe spaces to young people, ensuring they are not alone. Whatever the situation, having an adult who understands your perspective and backs you is highly empowering for children.
Having a positive presence of an adult can help young people manage their emotions well and open up about issues plaguing them. This way, rather than resorting to extreme acts, including violence or self-harm, they learn to deal with their overwhelming thoughts. Additionally, if they have been subjected to violence, a healthy relationship with an adult can make it much easier for them to disclose it.
Read more: Teenagers And Their Mental Health-Related Issues
2. Provide the right atmosphere for children at home.
If you feel that children ignore or conveniently forget the atmosphere they feel and live in at their homes, you are highly mistaken. Children living in homes troubled with instances of physical and psychological abuse can have powerful adverse effects on children. These include:
- staying in a constant state of perpetual anxiety,
- displaying aggressive behaviors and violent tendencies,
- becoming victims of abuse themselves, or
- repeating abusive patterns.
Therefore, all adults in the household are responsible for providing a positive and safe space for children to grow up.
3. Deglamorize the very idea of violence.
In the mainstream notion, multiple movies and television shows tend to glamorize the ideas of violence. The protagonist engaging in fights at the office or in college and bystanders cheering for him is a common scenario on the screens nowadays. These visuals reinforce the idea that violence and problematic behaviors are cool and socially acceptable. These are completely false notions. Therefore, we as a society need to stop glamorizing violence. We need to teach our younger generation that there are better ways of solving conflicts, and throwing fists at people or hurting them physically or mentally is not the only option out there.
Read more: Teen Suicide Prevention Programs
Conclusion:
National Youth Violence Prevention Week is the right opportunity for us all to unite and ensure a safer world for our younger generation.
Young people worldwide need to be seen and heard more than ever. And we, as adults, cannot let them down. With this post, we hope to propagate that whether you are a parent, educator, or just a concerned adult – there is something you can do to curb youth violence.
Apart from youth violence, here are the most common social issues affecting teenagers around us.
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