Classroom Education Program

Ending Cycles of Violence: A Personal Choice (ECV)
ECV is comprised of a series of 10 classroom presentations during which students learn to recognize how previous experiences of violence affect individual behavior and understand how healing from trauma can prevent further violence.

Our Educators and participants explore the reasons why people hurt others and solutions for violence prevention. Educators explain how suffering happens in cycles - people who have been hurt often continue the pattern by hurting others - and that breaking the silence can be the first step of prevention.

ECV is founded in the belief that people are not born violent; rather they learn violent behavior through life experiences. Violence can, therefore, be unlearned by analyzing traumatic events and understanding how they can lead an individual to engage in behavior that is hurtful to him/herself or others. The goal is to encourage students to become aware of violence they may have experienced and how it has affected their lives. Students can then begin to recover, rather than act out these feelings in destructive behavior. In this way, the program seeks to prevent cycles of violence from repeating.

Our primary objective is to pass on information and techniques to minimize the likelihood of victimization and to challenge belief systems, which support all forms of violence, including rape. RTS is committed to changing attitudes and dispelling misconceptions of sexual assault and all forms of violence.

For more information or to schedule a classroom presentation, please contact RTS at (650) 652-0598.