Over a decade of Education and Empowerment

Program Summary

The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Program, founded in 1993 by Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society, is a leadership program that motivates student-athletes and student leaders to play a central role in solving problems that historically have been considered "women's issues": rape, battering, and sexual harassment.
Until recently, few campus or community-based programs have encouraged young men to work actively on these issues. The mixed gender, racially-diverse MVP Program, composed of former professional and college athletes, motivates men and women to work together in preventing gender violence.

Program Goals

The four main goals of the MVP Program:

• Raise Awareness of participants about the level of men’s verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of women.

• Challenge Thinking by countering mainstream messages about gender, sex and violence.

• Open Dialogue by creating a safe environment for men and women to share their opinions and experiences.

• Inspire Leadership by empowering participants with concrete options to effect change in their respective communities.

Bystander Approach to Prevention

Utilizing a unique bystander approach to prevention, the MVP program views student-athletes and student leaders not as potential perpetrators or victims, but as empowered bystanders who can confront abusive peers. This emphasis reduces the defensiveness men often feel and the helplessness women often feel when discussing issues of men's violence against women.

The MVP approach does not involve finger pointing, nor does it blame participants for the widespread problem of gender violence. Instead it sounds a positive call for proactive, preventive behavior and leadership.

The MVP Playbook

MVP provides interactive trainings to high school, college and community-based leadership groups, sports teams, teachers, coaches, administrators, as well as campus-based professionals. In the sessions, MVP staff facilitate a series of real-life scenarios from the MVP Playbook. Participants discuss concrete options for intervention in situations ranging from sexist comments overheard in the locker room to an attempted rape involving alcohol.

In addition, media images from popular culture are used to further illustrate and broaden discussion of the issues raised in the scenario discussions.

• More MVP Playbook information & sample scenario