Youth-Centered Environmental Shift Program

In 2019, staff at OSPI created the Youth-Centered Environmental Shift Program (YES!). Prompted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) call to support new research regarding community-level primary prevention strategies for sexual violence (SV), YES! is to be implemented with rape prevention and education program funding from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH).

YES! is a community-level intervention rather than solely an individual- or relationship-level program. YES! does not include a student-level curriculum, making the program easier to implement and more scalable under the constrained resources of many school districts.

YES! Goals

• Incorporate youth input concerning school climate and culture into community-level primary prevention strategies.
• Create protective environments and reduce rates of SV victimization and perpetration within school communities.
• Create a school culture where students are emotionally and physically safe, supported, and free of abuse, specifically SV.

YES! Strategies

School Support Teams

• Leads middle school implementation.
• Includes-administrator, educator, support staff, district-level staff.
• Engages students throughout implementation.
• Trainers of middle school staff.

Environmental Shift

• Gather youth feedback to gauge the physical, social, and cultural safety of school through hot spot mapping.
• Implement the It's About Respect social norms campaign developed by Department of Health.

Protocol and Plan Revision

• Revise protocols and plans suggested by advisory boards.
• Obtain building (students/staff) feedback.
• Adoption of building-level protocols/plans.

YES! utilizes the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model (WSCC) as its underlying foundation. The WSCC is an ecological approach developed by the CDC and the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) to increase the connectedness of communities by placing youth at the center to support their development and long-term success. The development of a positive social and emotional climate increases academic achievement, reduces stress, and improves positive attitudes toward self and others.

YES! Pilot Study

Between 2020 and 2024, OSPI Staff recruited three Washington Schools to implement the YES! program pilot, with assistance from an evaluation team at the University of Washington (UW). The results of the pilot and the YES! Toolkit are coming soon.
 

Research

As a part of the evaluation process, two subprojects were completed to understand some key perspectives to effectively partner with middle schools in sexual violence prevention.

• Recommendations From LGBTQ+ Youth: This qualitative study aimed to understand LGBTQ+ student perspectives in how middle and high school environments can better prevent and address SV.
• Perspectives of School District Leaders: The purpose of this study was to explore barriers to implementing and evaluating sexual violence prevention programs in schools.

Coming Soon
 

YES! Implementation Toolkit

Starting in 2025, Washington schools can launch the YES! Program for middle school-aged students.

Hot Spot Mapping App

In Development (est. 2024–2026). Hot Spot Mapping is a data collection tool that identifies where on a school campus students feel safe or unsafe. This data is used to make changes to the physical school environment to make unsafe spaces (“hot spots”) safer.