The multiracial, mixed-gender MVP Model has been widely influential in the development and operation of a range of gender violence prevention initiatives in high schools, colleges, the military, community organizations and sexual and domestic violence programs.
MVP was the first large-scale initiative in the world to leverage the influence and social power of sports culture in the struggle against all forms of gender violence.
MVP was the first system-wide gender violence prevention program in the U.S. Armed Services (in the Marine Corps in 1997).
MVP personnel have trained hundreds of thousands of male and female student-athletes, coaches and administrators at hundreds of NCAA Division 1, 2 and 3 college athletic programs.
MVP has conducted trainings with dozens of professional teams in the NFL, CFL, NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball, Australian Football League, NASCAR and many other sports organizations.
Professional MVP trainers have trained tens of thousands of educators, coaches, military personnel, health care practitioners and law enforcement professionals.
MVP trainings feature some of the best and most cutting-edge media literacy tools and exercises in gender violence prevention education.
In 2012, MVP hosted the first-ever international conference on the bystander approach in Boston, Massachusetts, entitled “Bystander Intervention: From Its Roots to the Road Ahead.”
MVP has been a central feature of the groundbreaking work in K-12 schools and higher education done by Dr. Alan Heisterkamp and his colleagues at the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Violence Prevention, founded in 2011.
MVP started working in Scotland in 2011 and today is Scotland’s largest anti-violence schools programme, operating in high schools in most local authority areas from Shetland to the Scottish borders.
