The Violence Intervention Advocates Program (VIA)

The Violence Intervention Advocates Program (VIA), est. 2013, is a holistic youth leadership and life skills building program focused on increasing self capacity, resiliency and awareness for youth aged 14-20yrs who endure negative experience in systems such as justice, education and child welfare. VIA builds young leaders in the community who can intervene, educate, and be role models for their peers. Youth are taught to facilitate various workshops and teachings, to become peer mentors, and facilitate the same learned programs within their neighbourhoods and to other youth in local communities. All VIA’s evidence-based engaging developmental workshops are rooted in an assets-based approach framework for knowledge transfer. VIA responds to personal/systemic barriers using intervention strategies, youth resiliency, self-empowerment techniques and culturally diverse activities. Youth learn violence intervention, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, gang prevention, and other important issues and they then engage their peers in knowledge exchange.