For the past 15 years, the Waitt Foundation and the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention have supported the Mentors in Violence Prevention programs in Sioux City High Schools and middle schools. MVP is a gender based anti-violence and bullying curriculum implemented in public schools and pioneered by Jackson Katz.
In 2000, West High School in Sioux City, IA was the first school in the state to start implementing education and strategies to combat violence. Since then, the program has expanded to statewide training youth and young adults on violence prevention.
Under Dr. Heisterkamp’s leaderships, across the State, a total of 4,796 mentors have been trained; 35,300 9th graders instructed in MVP.
MVP leaders, From left, Dr. Jackson Katz, Jeffrey O'brien, anti violence trainer, and Don McPherson, former Philadelphia Eagles football player, speaker, and gender violence activist.
MVP Student Leadership Conference 2018 in Sioux City Iowa.
Dr. Heisterkamp at an MVP training in Sioux City
So far MVP has reached 12% of all 9th graders within the State and by 2021, close to 40% with the help from the Department of Education will include 42 more schools bringing the total number of schools to 61.
Dr. Heisterkamp has partnered with Graham Goulden, head of Violence Prevention unit in Scotland to implement MVP in various schools in Scotland.
He has also expanded the program with partners in Sweden to implement MVP in high schools there.
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MVP team from Sweden, on a trip to the U.S. in 2014 to learn about our use of Mentors in Violence Prevention in our Hometown of Sioux City, Iowa.
MVP parteners program
Dr. Jackson Katz founded the MVP program over 25 years ago.