Janna Lesser, RN, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Nursing’s Department of Family Nursing Care, is co-principal investigator of the $924,000 study.
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Nearly 500 students at the Harlandale Alternative Center are participating in a community-based violence prevention research study being conducted through The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The program provides culturally sensitive activities for sixth- through 12-grade students at the Harlandale Independent School District’s alternative school in San Antonio, as well as an accompanying weekend program for the students’ parents and grandparents.

The three-year project is funded by a $924,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

“Familias SUAVE: Preventing Violence with El Joven Noble (The Noble Youth) and Cara y Corazon (Face and Heart),” is being led by Janna Lesser, RN, Ph.D., and Manuel Angel Oscos-Sanchez, M.D. Dr. Lesser is an assistant professor in the School of Nursing’s Department of Family Nursing Care, and Dr. Oscos-Sanchez is an associate professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Family & Community Medicine.

Community Collaboration Council has key role in the project
Although they are co-leaders of the study, the faculty members are quick to point out that this is a community-based project that includes not only the students and their parents, but a Community Collaborative Council composed of Harlandale school officials, representatives from community organizations and agencies, and community members who have been affected by violence and abuse in the past.

“The Collaborative Council has major input and decision-making power to make sure that the project is meeting the needs of the community,” Dr. Oscos-Sanchez said. “We provide a framework and the council makes the decisions,” he said.

The Community Collaborative Council composed of Harlandale school officials, representatives of community organizations and agencies, and community members who have been affected by violence and abuse, is a decision-making body for the project.

Faculty members provide methodology for the project
The “framework” is a proven social action methodology that helps community groups seek input from their communities through meetings and surveys, set goals for change, devise a plan for change and then gauge the success of the program. “It is very important that the people in the community make these decisions because it is their program and they are the ones who will benefit from it,” Dr. Oscos-Sanchez said.

In this case, the plan for change involves three curriculums, two for students and one for their families.

Students assigned to one of two classes
Begun in fall 2008, the 480 sixth- through 12-graders are participating in either the El Joven Noble violence prevention class or the Teen Medical Academy, a health career promotion class this year.

“The El Joven Noble class increases insight into their intrinsic value and how what happens to them affects the people they love, like their families and intimate partners,” Dr. Lesser explained. “They learn that their decisions and life experiences are connected and that their decisions determine their future and that of their community.” The other class, the Teen Medical Academy, is a program developed and taught by Dr. Oscos-Sanchez to interest Latino students in a health care career. Next year the students will switch classes. The third year of the study will be used to collect and tabulate data for results.

Parents’ classes reinforce what it taught in school
Meanwhile, the students’ parents and grandparents are participating in weekend classes called Cara y Corazon. The name of the program refers to an ancient Aztec philosophy that stressed the communal responsibility to help all children develop a Wise Face and a Strong Heart as part of positive character development. This program reinforces in the home what the students are learning at school and focuses on the positive strengths of the Latino family, including the parents’ role as positive and respectful role models in a caring family structure.

The study will track the students’ behavior over the two years to see which program, El Joven Noble or the Teen Medical Academy, helps the students stay away from violence.