An Overview Of Our Programs

STOP Violence is part of Synergy Services, Inc., a Kansas City based non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the individual, family, and community through crisis intervention, shelter, counseling, advocacy and education.  Prior to an October 2005 merger, STOP Violence was an independently functioning non-profit organization.  STOP was founded in 1982 by violence prevention advocate and author SuEllen Fried.  The merger with Synergy Services provided the STOP Violence programs more resources and a greater opportunity to thrive in the company of other programs and individuals with a similar mission and goal: the elimination of violence in our community.

Inmate Program
The STOP Violence Program for Inmates originated in 1982 when inmates at the Lansing Correctional Facility in Lansing, Kansas, judged a community-wide contest focusing on the prevention of family violence. This partnership led to the STOP Violence Program for Inmates, a highly successful inmate self-help program currently operating 10 groups in seven Kansas correctional facilities.

Incarcerated men and women run the meetings using a curriculum written by inmates that teaches life skills and helps them make positive changes in their lives. By breaking the cycle of violence they become contributing members of their families and society. Program participants routinely speak to students and other groups in their communities about choices and consequences.

Bullying Prevention
Bullying prevention programs originated at STOP Violence in 1990 when Jacque DeJesus and Barbara Unell created the “Kindness is Contagious…Catch It” program.

Our bullying prevention programs are implemented in schools, camps, day cares and other venues where youth congregate. These programs teach empathy and respect, and introduce youth to strategies that prevent bullying.

Our comprehensive program, Get Connected , works with youth, educators, and parents to build positive social skills, create an empathetic and respectful environment, and reduce bullying and peer abuse among youth.

Our STEP Up female bullying program focuses on bullying and peer abuse among females in 5th through 9th grades.  This interactive program addresses such issues as cliques, gossip, cyber bullying, conflict resolution and positive role modeling.

Courage To Be Kind, or C2BK, is a bullying prevention program facilitated in Jackson County schools in conjunction with DARE programs. 

Kindest Kansas Citian
The Kindest Kansas Citian Essay Contest and Banquet is a celebration of the wonderful impact kindness has on all of us. The essay contest allows students throughout the Kansas City area to write an essay about the kindness of an adult who has positively affected them. The contest culminates in the Kindest Kansas Citian Banquet, where we recognize and celebrate kindness in our community. The artwork associated with the Kindness program, as well as the line “Kindness is contagious…Catch It™” were developed by internationally renowned artist Rita Blitt.

Kindness buttons, a staple of STOP Violence are passed on to others when an act of kindness is witnessed. Elaine and Norman Polsky have provided thousands of these buttons to STOP Violence and many other kind individuals through the years.