All Posts

The Senior Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 21 was a very special night for the Class of 2026 and a very special night for the Melrose Alliance Against Violence (MAAV). Alongside the celebration of the soon to be MHS graduates, MAAV was grateful to have the opportunity to honor the memory of Joan Bell, MAAV’s beloved former board president of over twenty years, who passed away unexpectedly last year. To honor Joan Bell’s kindness, humor, and fierce dedication to youth progra

Established in 1998 to enable student input into MAAV’s prevention programs, the Student Action Board (SAB) has grown significantly over the past decades. Today, 27 Melrose High School students in grades 10 - 12 serve as SAB peer mentors. Each spring, SAB recruits new members from the 9th grade class, via a competitive application process, to serve SAB starting in their 10th grade year. Throughout the school year, SAB delivers healthy relationship education, teen dating viol

Rethinking teachable scenarios, from toddlers to teens Written by: Jennifer Berryman Horne** Imagine you're a kid and you break a cookie in half to share with a friend. You feel generous, pleased, empowered. Now imagine someone rushes up and rudely grabs a cookie right out of your hand. You feel cheated, shocked, victimized. We all get the difference between sharing and stealing. Why does it feel confusing or tricky to wrap our heads around these concepts when we wander i

What an afternoon! The wet and gloomy day Mother Nature wrought was no match for the power and light of community, gathering for Melrose Alliance Against Violence’s (MAAV’s) 13th annual “Voices Against Violence” Community Coffeehouse on Sunday, March 22nd. The special, sacred space generously provided by Temple Beth Shalom was filled with adults, teens, and children who gathered to support local creatives and MAAV’s mission to interrupt the cycle of relational violence. The