Thanks to a grant of $255,000 from MetLife Foundation, this year the APA-led Adults and Children Together (ACT) Against Violence media campaign will continue informing parents and teachers about their important role in helping children avoid violence. This Metlife Foundation grant, its third to the ACT project, brings the foundation's total support of ACT to $800,000.

Drawing on decades of research indicating violence is a learned behavior, the campaign launched in 2001 as part of APA's larger ACT initiative and advances the idea that nonviolence can also be taught and learned.

"This campaign reminds parents, teachers and child-care providers about how they can help children learn ways to avoid violence," says Sibyl Jacobson, president and CEO of the MetLife Foundation. "ACT provides adults with the skills and tools they need to create a healthy and safe learning environment for young children."

The 2004 grant will continue a campaign that has, through TV, radio, outdoor, print and Web advertising, reached about 50 million households. Placements of ACT messages though the Ad Council--an organization that makes public service announcements--has earned the campaign more than $60 million in donated airtime and space.

--K. KERSTING