Through a grant from the MA Department of Public Health Youth Violence Prevention Program, Healthy Malden is working to achieve knowledge gains among 300-400 Malden youth regarding alternatives to violent behavior. We also strive to help students create youth-generated public relations materials promoting greater community appreciation for youth strengths and contributions. This indirectly affects nearly 1,00o youths connected to Malden with mentoring abilities and leadership and life skills and helps the Youth Violence Prevention Program reach nearly 4,000 youth across the Commonwealth.

At Malden High School, the Civil Rights Team, based on a national model, cultivates and trains a diverse group of high school students to act as peer leaders in an effort to fight bias, bigotry, and racism in their schools. The Malden High School CRT program was established by HMI in 2001 with a two-year grant from the U.S. Office of Health and Human Services, with direction from the Governor's Task Force on Hate Crimes and the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ). The work of CRT on the school-level parallels the citywide efforts of HMI to empower Malden’s residents to advocate and work toward improving the health and wellness of their community.

CRT members work to encourage and inspire others to be open minded through creative programs and projects. The purpose of these events is to unify the diverse student-body of Malden High School and include:

The Civil Rights Team SLAM Event in March of 2009 was an evening of artistic expression in the fight against racism, sexism, homophobia, and all other “isms”.

Monthly Social Justice Movie Nights were shown in the High School cafeteria at which a film that depicts issues of injustice and prejudice was followed by a guided discussion on the issues.

The Rock Against Violence Event (R.A.V.E.) by the Civil Rights Team in February 2009 and again on May 30th for grades K-8 were held to promote violence prevention principles. This is a terrific evening of Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Dance Dance Revolution competitions while learning violence prevention and cessation tactics.

Healthy Malden’s monthly cable show was produced by Malden High School Civil Rights Team members in November, which is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Our guest was Deborah Fallon, Founder and Director of Portal To Hope (PTH) established in 1996 to serve young women, ages fifteen to eighteen, whose lives have been affected by family and/or teen-dating violence.