About Take Ten
"To promote choices and strategies that cultivate nonviolent communities."
“Youth, when faced with conflict, will use the skills acquired from Take Ten to
successfully resolve conflict nonviolently.”
“Many who live with violence day in and day out assume that it is an
intrinsic part of the human condition. But this is not so. Violence can be prevented.”
What is Take Ten?
Take Ten is a skills-based conflict resolution program that provides youth and adults with positive alternatives to violence and encourages them to think before they act, building their capacity to make more informed choices when faced with a conflict. Rather than respond violently to conflict, we encourage people to “Talk it Out, Walk it Out, or Wait it Out!” “Take Ten deep breaths...” rather than say something that hurts. Or “Take Ten steps back...” rather than getting involved in a fight. Or “Take Ten seconds to think...” about what you are doing rather than using something as a weapon.
To do this we recruit volunteers from:
- University of Notre Dame
- St. Mary's College
- Holy Cross College
- Indiana University of South Bend
- Ivy Tech
- Bethel College
- Interested community citizens
- Constantly expanding!
Take Ten Blog
To explore our blog and read reflections from our volunteers, please click here.
Please click on the links below to see the 2014 and 2013 Take Ten Annual Reports.
In 1995, Anne Parry, with the city of Chicago, decided to address the issue of school violence with a fresh approach. She created Take Ten – a slogan that encouraged children and adults to TALK IT OUT, WALK IT OUT, WAIT IT OUT rather than engage in violent behavior. The slogan aimed at teaching participants to: Take ten deep breaths instead of saying something that hurts; take ten steps back rather than getting involved in a fight; and take ten seconds to cool off instead of using something as a weapon.
Take Ten has become a skills-based program which teaches conflict resolution, bullying prevention and the tools to make peaceful choices. The evolution from slogan to successful curriculum that operates in schools and other sites throughout the greater Michiana area and in several places beyond central Indiana has been an organic one based on word of mouth and many successes. Take Ten provides youth and adults necessary skills to work through conflict in peaceful ways, thus building capacity to make better, more positive choices. Take Ten impacts bullying and violence in this way.
The goals of Take Ten are to prevent and reduce violence, teach conflict resolution skills and demonstrate successful skills needed to handle bullying in all of its forms. Take Ten defines violence as anything that causes harm, physical or emotional, to oneself or another living being, place or thing. The objective is to shift what is acceptable and expected behavior in society today, namely violence, to attitudes and behaviors that expect and teach nonviolence. In order to reach these goals, Take Ten volunteers work with children and adults to teach them skills to “Talk it Out, Walk it Out, and Wait it Out.” By providing people with these skills, they are better equipped to think before they act when faced with a conflict that may result in violence.
Take Ten gradually becomes ingrained into the psyche of the school and schools have reported that a fundamental social change occurs after Take Ten is integrated into their culture.
“One of the myths to dispel is that conflict is always bad. Conflict is actually a natural, normal part of life …Conflict is not bad in and of itself, yet for many of us, especially young people, it has come to equal violence. This is an equation we have to break.”~ Linda Lantieri and Janet Patti, “Waging Peace in our Schools” 1996 (p52-53)
Today, the word “bullying” means different things to different people. This is because bullying has changed over time. In order to better prevent bullying in today’s school settings, we must first understand the different types of bullying.
In general, bullying is a pattern of behavior intended to intimidate or manipulate others. Generally, three types of bullying are common among students at schools today: physical, emotional, and cyberbullying affect almost all students to some degree.
- Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
- Mendoza College of Business
- Saint Mary's College
- Holy Cross College
- Bethel College
- Ivy Tech Community College
- Wells Fargo Client Trusts
- Notre Dame Federal Credit Union
- Memorial Health Systems, Community Health Enhancement
- South Bend Alumni Association