November 4, 1998

Media Contact: José A. Alvarez (619) 594-2585

 

CDC Awards SDSU Professor $1.1 Million Grant for Research on Violence Prevention Among Youth

The Centers for Disease Control recently awarded a $1.1 million grant to Dr. Fernando I. Soriano, professor of Chicano/Chicana Studies at San Diego State, to continue his research on violence prevention among adolescent youth.

The three-year grant will be used to implement and evaluate a school-based violence prevention program in six alternative high schools in Santa Clara and Alameda Counties in Northern California.

The program, called "Cultures and Communities," has been piloted over the past three years and has been shown to be efficacious in reducing violence, intercultural group conflict and in enhancing self-esteem.

The project focuses on increasing social and communication skills as well as cultural sensitivity among teens to help them better understand those that are culturally different from them. The program is targeted at African-American, Asian and Latino students.

"I am very excited about the implementation of the program in Northern California…It is one of the few programs that deals with the issues of culture and cultural conflict, while addressing other social and communication issues of importance to adolescent students," said Dr. Soriano, explaining that the project is particularly beneficial to Hispanic youth because "Latino students commonly feel even more alienated from others culturally different from themselves." It is for that reason thaqt he is working to bring the program to some San Diego City high schools, particularly those with a large Latino student population.

"We are interested in implementing the program locally and making it into an after school program," added Soriano, who is also director of the National Latino Research Center at SDSU and will be lecturing on "Latinos and Youth Violence" during the Center’s monthly networking group meeting.

The meeting will take place Friday, November 6, at 3:30 p.m. in room 2112 of the Adams Humanities Building on the SDSU campus. For additional information or for an interview with Dr. Soriano, call (619) 594-3640.

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