The foundation of the Green Dot Strategy is education. Because of the human cost of interpersonal violence, we are committed to leveraging all available science to maximize the impact of every program. All workshop content, and every element of delivery and dissemination, is informed by research across many fields including but not limited to prevention, instructional design, learning transfer, persuasion, diffusion of innovations, hope science, community mobilization, social marketing/branding, and diversity and inclusion.

The foundational training component of Green Dot consists of a student workshop and an employee workshop. Workshops are designed to give participants the knowledge, skills, and motivation they need to engage in prevention efforts. Specifically, workshops equip students and employees to intervene in high-risk situations and engage in behaviors that contribute to a healthy campus climate. Depending on capacity and resources, campuses can expand their implementation in two ways: (1) they can implement the multi-year strategy delivering a different workshop each year for up to four-years, aligning with the typical academic cycle of their student body, and (2) they can incorporate a four-hour bystander workshop to strengthen the skillsets of key groups.

It doesn’t matter what you’re saying if no one is listening. Maximizing participant engagement in learning is dependent on the effectiveness of the instructor. The two-day instructor training includes a focus on developing the core skills of effective delivery and facilitation including relationship building, establishing credibility through authenticity, harnessing the power of persuasion, and using hope to inspire action.