Hearts of Hope Education Department

Hearts of Hope offers a variety of education programs to focus on the primary prevention of sexual violence (stopping violence before it even has the chance to happen). Connect with us to request a workshop for your organization, group, or school. Workshop offerings are available for adults and youth in the following parishes: Acadia Parish, Lafayette Parish, St. Martin Parish, Vermilion Parish, St. Mary Parish. Please contact our office to request a workshop for your group or organization, and a member of our team will contact you with more information.

Education Trainings

Mandated Reporter Training
Target Audience: Teachers, Counselors, Community Members
Length: 60 Minutes
Description: The Mandated Reporter Training is designed to help early childhood and school-age professionals understand their responsibilities as mandated reporters, who must report any suspicion of child maltreatment. Participants will learn about reporting requirements and signs and symptoms of various types of maltreatment, as well as the potential long-term impacts of specific types of abuse or neglect.

Bystander Intervention and Consent Training
Target Audience: Teens and Young adults
Length: 60 Minutes
Description: Bystander intervention is used in efforts to prevent harm or intervene when there is a risk of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence or stalking. Bystander intervention training is one of the most effective ways to empower students, staff, and faculty to address and prevent harassment on campus and strategically leverages students as change agents, going beyond “see something, say something” to make campuses safer.

Internet Safety (Now Matters Later)
Target Audience: Teens
Length: 30 Minutes
Description: The online world offers a wealth of resources for education, entertainment, and connection with other people. Unfortunately, the internet also poses new dangers, and those dangers threaten teens especially. Internet Safety provides the resources necessary for both parents and teens to safely utilize the Internet.

Understanding ACEs
Target Audience: General Public
Length: 4-6 Hours
ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences, describe all types of abuse, neglect, and other traumatic childhood experiences. This workshop explores the ACE Study which links the short- and long-term effects of childhood trauma to many of society’s most challenging issues. This study explores the scientific effects of these experiences during development.

Prevention Education Programs

Hearts of Hope provides several programs that consist of multiple sessions which are targeted at building participants’ knowledge and understanding of consent, healthy relationships, economic empowerment and sexual violence prevention. Contact our office to enroll in one of our education programs.

Girl Talk
Program Length 6 Weeks

Girl Talk is a comprehensive program that uses peer-to-peer mentoring through weekly meetings that are designed to help girls learn leadership skills and self-confidence through practical experiences. Effective girls’ programming provides a safe space for girls to grow and connect while developing leadership skills and abilities. Such approaches may improve girls’ educational and occupational opportunities and contribute to the status and influence of women in society, potentially reducing risk for sexual violence, given the links between gender inequality, low socio-economic status, educational and occupational status of women, and risk for sexual violence.

Women’s Economic Empowerment
Program Length 6 Weeks

Our Women’s Economic Empowerment is a program focused on working with women within the community to educate and engage in economic empowerment in efforts to address poverty, economic security, and power imbalances between women and men. Increasing knowledge may help improve economic security for families. Provisions of these types of support ensure women can remain in and contribute sustainability to the workforce, which promotes family stability and also decreases gender inequality, which has been linked to risk for sexual violence.

Securing a Brighter Future
Program Length 6 Weeks

The primary purpose of Securing a Brighter Future is to provide opportunities for increasing knowledge and skills to obtain or maintain jobs paying above the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) threshold. Hearts of Hope believes in the practices of prevention, which decreases the number of sexual violence cases in a community. The Securing a Brighter Future program is designed to teach women skills needed for securing employment boost (promotion, raise, and/or new positions) through resume building, job seeking preparation classes, and providing guidance with seeking post-secondary certifications.

Campus Prevention Coalition
Ongoing Program

Hearts of Hope is working to engage male students, faculty, and male athletes at UL Lafayette to develop a prevention coalition, geared towards increasing safety and preventing sexual violence. Our goal is to facilitate a prevention coalition composed of men and women who are invested in mobilizing men and developing their masculinity gender lens. The goal is to increase the number of male allies across the campus, including such areas as athletics, fraternities, and the LGBTQ+ campus groups, by devoting time to building relationships.