OUR PROGRAMS
To accomplish our mission, Project PAVE provides effective and accessible Healthy Relationships Education Programs and Early Intervention Mental Health Services to middle and high school youth in under-served communities. It is the promise of our mission that youth who receive services and education are less likely to continue cycles of violence.
YOUTH COMMUNITY EDUCATORS PROGRAM (YCEP)
YCEP is a youth empowerment program that trains high school students to provide peer-to-peer healthy relationship education across the Denver Metro area. YCEPers are fully integrated into the PAVE team, taking on projects across PAVE and within the community. YCEPers are prepared to be the next generation of leaders in their communities.
Youth who participate in YCEP will:
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Collaboratively facilitate and update PAVE programming
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Set and work towards individual goals for the year
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Identify and complete community projects
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Engage in professional development opportunities with the PAVE staff and board
PATH TO HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS (PTHR)
PTHR is an educational activity and conversation-based healthy relationship class delivered to middle and high school students across the Denver Metro Area. PTHR allows youth to challenge rigid views of gender roles in relationships and build the skills needed to change abusive dating norms. Students who complete the PTHR curriculum are equipped to build and maintain healthy relationships and safely interrupt problematic relationship behaviors.
PTHR participants will:
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Learn warning signs of abuse
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Practice assertive, nonviolent communication
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Promoting help-seeking by survivors and perpetrators
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Understand and practice skills for consent
BRAVE WOMAN
Brave Woman is Project PAVE’s healthy femininity program, designed to support girls and young women in counteracting the impact that sexism has on their personal identity and relationships. Young women who complete the Brave Woman program are empowered to redefine their relationship to self and others with tools that promote a high self-worth, personal autonomy, and leadership.
Designed as six, 50-minute sessions for middle school and high school young women/girls, Brave Woman can also be adapted to other groups and scheduling formats.
Brave Woman participants will:
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Analyze representations of women in media and society
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Reflect on the impacts and implications those representations have on relationships to self and others
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Develop skills for self-compassion, self-confidence, and personal agency
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Practice healing and affirming womanhood
TRUE MAN
True Man is a healthy masculinity program designed to help boys and young men develop healthier ideas, values, and practices of ‘manhood’. Young men who complete the True Man Program will develop supportive relationships, encourage each other to express themselves authentically and be equipped to interrupt problematic thoughts and behaviors that impact gender based violence.
Designed as three, 90-minute sessions to middle and high school sports teams with their coaches but can be adapted to other groups of boys/men and scheduling formats.
True Man participants will:
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Deconstruct gender stereotypes and archetypes
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Develop personal and social identities through introspection and reflection
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Practice self-acceptance and compassion
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Learn mechanisms for personal transformation and help-seeking
SCHOOL BASED THERAPY
PAVE trauma-informed individual and group therapy is provided to youth survivors of violence in PAVE partner schools. PAVE’s bilingual, Spanish speaking therapists can be at school 1-3 days/week depending on arrangement with each school partner, and maintain both ongoing and short-term caseloads. PAVE therapy is client-led, meaning therapy clients can work on whatever is most important to their well-being, however most commonly, PAVE therapy clients will:
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Improve mental health
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Develop healthy coping skills
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Plan for their safety
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Heal from trauma
Therapists also provide training and support to school staff to identify youth survivors and provide trauma-informed classroom support.
YOUTH & FAMILY ADVOCACY
PAVE’s advocate works with therapy clients or other students at school and/or their families/caretakers to assist with meeting basic needs. PAVE’s advocate is a true community navigator, able to connect and refer families to resources outside the scope of PAVE’s expertise.
Most commonly PAVE’s client-led advocacy program assists clients with:
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Food
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Housing
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Utilities
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Legal support
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Employment
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SUPPORT GROUPS
PAVE’s peer-led social emotional support groups provide a prosocial environment for students to develop and hone skills needed to handle difficult emotional and social aspects of life.
Groups typically run for 4-6 weeks for students identified by PAVE staff, school staff, or self-identified as needing additional support. Participants will support each other in a peer-to-peer setting and also have access to support from the advocate.
Group topics commonly include but are not limited to:
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Managing stress and anxiety
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Utilizing healthy communication techniques
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Handling shame and guilt responses
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Personal boundaries