This project focuses on expanding promising programs in the area of violence prevention to meet the needs of youth with disabilities. The promotion of health and well-being among youth with disabilities is an important public health issue. Almost 54 million Americans have disabilities that may interfere with life activities, and health promotion programs may benefit these individuals greatly. Although schools offer a practical and important social context for implementing such efforts, most school-based violence prevention programs were developed for the general population and the effectiveness of these programs has not been evaluated among youth with disabilities. A key step to making progress is to modify such programs using best teaching practices with the goal of creating a school-based violence prevention program that is effective for youth with and without disabilities. The goals of this research project include the following:

(1) Forming an advisory board that includes exceptional education teachers, youth with disabilities and their parents, community members, and VCU research faculty to help guide the steps of this project.

(2) Conducting interviews with youth with disabilities and their teachers to identify the most commonly faced problem situations that place these youth at increased risk of violence involvement and supports and barriers that may help or hinder youth in addressing these situations.

(3) Conducting focus groups with teachers and other key informants to discuss supports and challenges to increasing access to this intervention program for youth with disabilities.

(4) Revising the violence prevention curriculum and delivery method to meet the needs of youth with and without disabilities

(5) Evaluating the effectiveness of this curriculum for youth with and without disabilities.

Although this process focuses on a specific intervention, we anticipate that this project will offer a practical template for the replication of health promotion efforts in other schools and school systems.