“The biggest thing I’m going to take away from this is that I have the power to be a leader and change situations, and if I see a situation that’s negative between a man and a woman that I have the power to intervene…I have the power to change our society.”

Clifton Ryan, Former Football Player/Team Captain, Michigan State University

MVP History
The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Program, founded in 1993 by Jackson Katz at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society (CSSS), is a leadership program that empowers participants 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 all forms of men’s violence against women. Click here to read a summary of the MVP Model by program creator Jackson Katz.

MVP National utilizes former athletes as trainers in all of its training programs. Athletes and athletics has a status in our culture that allows athletes to serve as role models. Click here to read more about the rationale for utilizing athletes as messengers for the prevention of violence and abuse (insert language from my article).

MVP National Program Goals

• Raise Awareness of participants about the level of men’s verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse in our culture.
• 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 about these volatile issues.
• Inspire Leadership by empowering participants with concrete options to confront and interrupt violent situations involving peers.

MVP Educational Philosophy
MVP trainings are highly interactive discussions designed to engagement of participants. Through MVP’s original teaching materials, MVP trainers facilitate dialogue among participants to maximize learning. MVP’s educational approach follows the learning pyramid and strives to keep all training material in the lower half of the pyramid. In these sections participants are more likely to retain educational information.

The Bystander Approach to Prevention
Utilizing a unique bystander approach to prevention, the MVP Program views participants 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. Participants in MVP sessions learn to serve as role models working to prevent this violence. 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.