Grant to pay for violence prevention work

A $500,000 federal grant that Connecticut will use to help students recognize red flag behavior before it erupts into school violence features programs developed by the homegrown nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise.

And there’s more where that came from.

The grant, which will help teach 116,000 students statewide about Sandy Hook Promise’s peer-based violence prevention programs, is funded by the $100 million STOP School Violence Act that was signed in March by President Donald Trump.

Sandy Hook Promise, which was instrumental in crafting that STOP act, has partnerships with school systems in 14 other states, including New York, Florida and California, to use act grant money to prevent violence and suicide in schools, said Mark Barden, a co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, whose son was one of 26 first-graders and educators slain in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.

“We are proud to continue our work in our home state ... to help keep Connecticut’s students safe by training them how to spot and report at-risk behaviors before violence occurs,” Barden said in a prepared statement. “We know we can prevent violence through proven programs like our Know the Signs programs.”

The peer-based programs, which have been in place in local school districts such as Danbury since 2016, encourage youth to both report at-risk behavior and support at-risk peers, such as those who are isolated.