Out of Harm's Way

Nationwide studies report that exposure to community violence and chronic poverty increases depression and aggressive behavior among adolescents, and can even lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It also affects how children learn and achieve in school. A United Way partnership with Boston Public Schools called “Out of Harm’s Way” is working to reduce violence and improve school climate for the healthy development and learning of middle school students.

Out of Harm’s Way (OHW) is an initiative that strategically increases resources in Dorchester ’s Lilla Frederick School, Roxbury’s Dearborn Middle School, Dorchester’s King Middle School and East Boston’s Umana/Barnes to help middle school students make decisions that keep them safe and ready to learn.

While the goal of OHW is ultimately about helping the students, it also focuses on providing support to the staff who often feel emotionally overwhelmed by the problems their students are trying to overcome. OHW staff are being trained to identifying those youth most in need and link them to programs, assessing the availability of services at the school and starting new programs to address gaps.

OHW has a unique feature that uses on joint training for afterschool and school staff, to work with these students to better understand how to meet their needs around trauma and resiliency and create a climate in the school where all adults, in-school teachers and afterschool staff, are together providing common techniques and strategies to support healthy alternatives to destructive or violent behavior.