A primer for community and public health students and others who have an interest in promoting personal and community peace education in schools, communities, and worksites.

1. A Community Health Education Primer
Violence Prevention through
Peace Education &
Promotion
Mayra Porrata, M.Ed.
Kent State University

2. Violence & Health
(impacts we can measure)
Premature death
Years of potential life lost
Disability and disability-adjusted life
years lost
Poor mental health
High medical costs
Lost productivity
SOURCE: Healthy People 2020

3. When Violence is Made Visible
Genocides
Massacres and school shootings
Economic & physical slavery
Rape
Threats of violence
Visible (verifiable) abusive behaviors
(stalking, demeaning, name-calling,
bullying on social media, etc.)

4. Violence & Health
Statistical Information
• Violence causes more than 1.6 million deaths worldwide every
year. Krug EG et al., eds. World report on violence and health.
Geneva, World Health Organization, 2002. Via CDC]
• A World Heath Organization report estimates the cost of
interpersonal violence in the U.S. at more than $300 billion per
year. The cost to victims was estimated at more than $500 billion
per year. Combined, this is the equivalent to nearly 10% of the
country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [The Economic
Dimensions of Interpersonal Violence, World Health Organization,
2004]
SOURCE: PeaceAlliance.ORG

5. Violence & Health
Statistical Information
• U.S. National violence containment costs are over $1.7
Trillion. [Global Peace Index, 2014
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#page/indexes/global-peace-
index/2014/USA/OVER]
• In the U.S., youth homicide rates are more than 10 times that
of other leading industrialized nations. [World Report on
Violence and Health, World Health Organization 2002]
• The Bureau of Justice reported in 2010 that 25% of women have
experienced domestic violence and 6 million children witness
domestic violence annually.
SOURCE: PeaceAlliance.ORG

6. Violence & Health
The cost of violence
Violence Containment Spending in the U.S.
Excerpts from report by Institute for Economics and Peace
Violence containment spending encompasses local, state, and
federal government expenditure as well as private spending by
corporations, households, and individuals. It includes medical
expenses to recover from violence, incarceration, defense and
military, insurance, alarm systems, the private security industry,
homeland security, and the work of the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA).
SOURCE: PeaceAlliance.ORG

7. Violence & Health (Hidden Violence)
(what we don’t know because we can’t “see” it)
Incidence and prevalence of emotional &
psychological abuse
The mechanisms that turn human suffering (which
is an inherent aspect of the human condition) into
physical violence and terrorism (domestic & global)
Long-term effects of fear on humanity
Non-conflict based peace literacy interventions and
accompanying data
SOURCE: Healthy People 2020

8. Violence & Health
Cultural forms of violence:
Terrorism
Sexism
Ageism
Racism
Nationalism/Patriotism
Consumerism

9. HP2020* Violence Prevention Objectives
IVP-29 Reduce homicides
IVP-30 Reduce firearm-related deaths
IVP-31 Reduce nonfatal firearm-related injuries
IVP-32 Reduce nonfatal physical assault injuries
IVP-33 Reduce physical assaults
IVP-34 Reduce physical fighting among adolescents
IVP-35 Reduce bullying among adolescents
IVP-36 Reduce weapon carrying by adolescents on school property
IVP-37 Reduce child maltreatment deaths
IVP-38 Reduce nonfatal child maltreatment
IVP-39 (Developmental) Reduce violence by current or former intimate partners
IVP-39.1 (Developmental) Reduce physical violence by current or former intimate partners
IVP-39.2 (Developmental) Reduce sexual violence by current or former intimate partners
IVP-39.3 (Developmental) Reduce psychological abuse by current or former intimate partners
IVP-39.4 (Developmental) Reduce stalking by current or former intimate partners
IVP-40 (Developmental) Reduce sexual violence
IVP-40.1 (Developmental) Reduce rape or attempted rape
IVP-40.2 (Developmental) Reduce abusive sexual contact other than rape or attempted rape
IVP-40.3 (Developmental) Reduce non-contact sexual abuse
IVP-41 Reduce nonfatal intentional self-harm injuries
IVP-42 Reduce children’s exposure to violence
IVP-43 Increase the number of States and the District of Columbia that link data on violent deaths from
death certificates, law enforcement, and coroner and medical examiner reports to inform prevention
efforts at the State and local levels
*Healthy People 2020 is
our nation’s leading public
health agenda. It is
updated regularly and
revised every 10 years.

10. Violence Prevention Objectives
Suggestion
#1. Rename/reframe this from
violence prevention to humanity &
peace literacy education & promotion
“We can’t CREATE what we can’t see.”
“What we focus on, grows”

11. IMAGINE these objectives…
•Increase the number of schools that teach peace and
humanity literacy, as part of the standard curriculum.
•Increase the number of social agencies who
teach/deliver/oversee peace education in their
community.
•Increase the number of places of worship that adopt and
teach peace and humanity literacy.
•Increase the number of undergraduate and graduate
programs in peace and humanity literacy, education &
promotion.
•Develop a peace leadership competencies/matrix that
creates a vision for 21st century leadership in government,
public and private sectors.

12. This really happened/is happening…
A bill, proposing the establishment of a US
Department of Peace. (Dennis Kucinich, 2012)
The Department of Peacebuilding Act of 2017
(multiple sponsors)
Objective: to make “nonviolence a national
organizing principle and gives peace an
institutional platform in our government.”

13. What do you see as some of the
possible unintended effects of
peace/humanity education &
promotion?
Might we be able to:
Reduce rates of homicide?
Rates of violent crimes?
Physical assaults?
Bullying?
(see current HP2020 Objectives)

14. Violence, Health & Humanity
A multi-factorial problem
A long-term problem
Cross-cutting implications
Massive in scale
Where do we even start?

15. It starts with
you.

16. Why? How?
“The quality of the results that we create
in any kind of social system is a function
of the quality of awareness, attention, or
consciousness that the participants in the
system operate from.”
Otto Scharmer

17. The quality of awareness,
attention, or consciousness…
As health educators (and any other professional charged
with educating and leading people and groups), we have
a duty to promote awareness of behaviors that are
conducive to health, peace, and productivity
for individuals and communities.
“DO NO HARM”
The New Human Oath

18. A call to action
#1 That we learn and understand how violence and fear
impacts every aspect of health and functioning for
individuals.
#2 That we strive to assess for, plan, deliver,
communicate and evaluate whole health education
programming.
#3 That we work to elevate the awareness, attention, and
consciousness of the populations we serve, by practicing
and embodying the 21st century leadership competencies.

19. 21st century leadership
competencies
SOURCE: Porrata & Pretti-Frontczak, 2015
ESSENCE GLOSSARY™ 2014
LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
Self-awareness
Self-regulation
Social intelligence
Situational awareness
Spiritual intelligence

20. “Peace cannot be kept
by force; it can only be
achieved by
understanding.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.