Tips for Violence Prevention

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Ten Things Adults Can Do To Stop Violence

1. Set up a Neighborhood Watch or a community patrol, working with police.
2. Make sure your streets and homes are well-lighted.
3. Make sure that all the youth in the neighborhood have positive ways to spend their spare time, through organized recreation, tutoring programs, part-time work, and volunteer opportunities.
4. Build a partnership with police, focused on solving problems instead of reacting to crises. Make it possible for neighbors to report suspicious activity or crimes without fear of retaliation.
5. Take advantage of "safety in numbers" to hold rallies, marches, and other group activities to show you're determined to drive out crime and drugs.
6. Clean up the neighborhood! Involve everyone - teens, children, senior citizens. Graffiti, litter, abandoned cars, and run-down buildings tell criminals that you don't care about where you live or each other. Call the local public works department and ask for help in cleaning up.
7. Ask local officials to use new ways to get criminals out of your building or neighborhood. These include enforcing anti-noise laws, housing codes, health and fire codes, anti-nuisance laws, and drug-free clauses in rental leases.
8. Work with schools to establish drug-free zones.
9. Work with recreation officials to do the same for parks.
10. Develop and share a phone list of local organizations that can provide counseling, job training, guidance, and other services that can help neighbors.

Ten Things Kids Can Do To Stop Violence

1. Settle arguments with words, not fists or weapons. Don't stand around and form an audience.
2. Learn safe routes for walking in the neighborhood, and know good places to seek help. Trust your feelings, and if there's a sense of danger, get away fast.
3. Report any crimes or suspicious actions to the police, school authorities, and parents. Be willing to testify if needed.
4. Don't open the door to anyone you and your parents don't know and trust.
5. Never go anywhere with someone you and your parents don't know and trust.
6. If someone tries to abuse you, say no, get away, and tell a trusted adult. Remember, it's not the victim's fault.
7. Don't use alcohol and other drugs, and stay away from places and people associated with them.
8. Stick with friends who are also against violence and drugs, and stay away from known trouble spots.
9. Get involved to make school safer and better - having poster contests against violence, holding anti-drug rallies, counseling peers, settling disputes peacefully. If there's no program, help start one!
10. Help younger children learn to avoid being crime victims. Set a good example and volunteer to help with community efforts to stop crime.

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