Prevention, video game style: The Real Robots of Robot High

November 29, 2012 |
Valor

Real Robots of Robot HighStart Strong Rhode Island recently released a new video game aimed at preventing teen dating violence.  The game, The Real Robots of Robot High, was created in partnership with youth and championed by leaders throughout the state.
In a summary video about the new game, Vanessa Volz, Executive Director of Sojourner House, home of the Start Strong Rhode Island project, explains:

When you think about teen dating violence prevention, a lot of times you think about someone going into a classroom and doing a lecture, but we really wanted to do something different.  We wanted to engage students where they are.  Kids are in front of the computer.  They are playing video games, so we saw this as a way to engage them about an important topic.

I had the opportunity to serve as a speaker with the director of this project, Christina Garcia, last month on a webinar about using social media in prevention efforts.  What most impressed me about the work of Start Strong Rhode Island was the commitment to working with youth to design and implement projects that really do speak to and work for them.  As you’ll see from the summary video below, the video game was set up to do just that.
Learn more about how you can use media and technology in your prevention efforts from this learn.preventconnect.org course.

Start Strong Rhode Island Celebration from Don Coyne on Vimeo.