January 27, 2019

Greetings,

We are pleased to invite you to a comprehensive preview at Wayland High School at 264 Old Connecticut Path, Wayland, MA, 01778, focused on enlarging your tool box of resources for promoting at many grade levels effective relationships and violence prevention in the interest of the betterment of our culture.  The event will take place on Thursday, March 7 from 3:00 to 4:30 in the South Building Lecture Hall at Wayland High School.

For over three years the LaurenDunneAstleyMemorialFund.org and the One Love Foundation (https://www.joinonelove.org) have been collaborating in developing and spotlighting best practices across the country in preventing violence, including boys and men’s violence against girls and women, other genders and each other.  We believe that sound education around these challenging matters requires that youth be given numbers of appropriate invitations and options as they grow to develop effective preventive concepts and skills. Educators and other professionals have supported these efforts in that over 30 high schools and over 45 colleges and universities in Massachusetts and greater New England now make use of the programs we have been promoting, beginning with One Love’s original workshop Escalation.

We will use the collaborative occasion not only to preview again One Love’s Escalation Workshop, but also to debut a new tool and a larger repertoire of tools available through both foundations to enlarge your tool kit of relevant resources. The new tool to be presented and developed through the LaurenDunneAstleyMemorialFund.org is the Loved to Death Workshop focused on the CBS 48 Hours documentary Loved to Death, presenting the story of Lauren Dunne Astley and concepts and skills in gender, dating, and break up violence prevention.

The Loved to Death Workshop is designed for use in one 55 Minute Period and can also be used for multiple periods of exploration and instruction.  The new workshop is aimed at high school grade levels, and was created with helpful parallels to One Love’s Escalation Workshop, aimed at high school seniors and mature juniors and college and university students.   In addition, other tools available through both foundations will also be presented with the aim of seeing that students have opportunities at numerous grade levels to advance their needed skills for effective, safe relationships and break ups, and violence prevention.

The Escalation Workshop is a 1.5 hour facilitated workshop for young people, aimed at high school seniors and college students, and often including some juniors in high schools for leadership the following year:

• The centerpiece is an engaging 40-minute video depicting a young college couple from the earliest exciting stages of their relationship, escalating to a tragic end.
• In its basic workshop form, the film is followed by a 45-minute, peer or adult facilitated discussion focused on helping students understand the warning signs of abuse, while also gaining clearer understanding of healthy versus unhealthy relationships, and learning skills for safe intervention and referral to specialist support when necessary.
• One Love provides a 1.5 – 2 hour virtual or in-person training for facilitators several weeks before the workshop is provided to the student body.

There are two options you can consider relating to use of the Escalation Workshop preview at Wayland High School.

1. You can view materials such as the trailer for Escalation at YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmV_aZ0LzhQ&t=45s and the #ThatsNotLove content, a collection of shorter videos available for educational use: https://www.joinonelove.org/act/thats-not-love/
2. If you cannot attend the screening of Escalation at Wayland High School, you can reach out directly to the One Love Boston team to learn more about how to bring One Love content to your school, college or community.  Email Claire Giampetroni at [email protected] to schedule a phone call or introduction meeting.

Please indicate your interest in attending the March 7 presentation with colleagues by contacting personnel at either foundation:

• Claire Giampetroni   JoinOneLove.org  [email protected]
• Malcolm Astley  LaurenDunneAstleyMemorialFund.org  [email protected]

We look forward to the possibility of continued progress with you in this movement.

Cordially,

Mary Dunne

Malcolm Astley, 508-397-7055, [email protected]   LaurenDunneAstleyMemorialFund.org

Claire Giampetroni [email protected]

Dedication Ceremony:

News Coverage:

Wayland Town Crier 6/17/12: Honoring the memory of Lauren Astley in Wayland. It was a day to remember Lauren Astley and how she lived, not how she died. Yesterday, Wayland High School dedicated a mosaic that featured a rising sun over a blue ocean to Astley, who was murdered last year. “I think today is to say out loud, ‘Lauren, we miss you and we won’t forget you,’ ” said Astley’s mother, Mary Dunne, to the more than 200 gathered for the unveiling. “It’s beautiful and bold, just like Lauren.”

Wayland Patch 6/16/12: VIDEO: Community Gathers for Unveiling of Astley Mosaic. A project that began just a few months ago became a permanent fixture at Wayland High School Saturday afternoon as about 200 people gathered to unveil a glass mosaic created in memory of Lauren Dunne Astley. A group of about a dozen current and former WHS students worked primarily with teacher David Schmirer and artist Josh Winer, a 1974 graduate of WHS, to conceptualize and create the mosaic that now hangs in the courtyard at WHS.

Wayland Patch 6/13/12: Friends, Classmates Create Mosaic in Memory of Lauren Astley. It has been nearly a year since Lauren Dunne Astley was killed just weeks after graduating from Wayland High School. In that year, there has been much healing and much activity around town to memorialize Astley’s young, but influential life. But there hasn’t really been anything done at the high school where she spent four years with her closest friends and where so many students still there have fond memories of her.