For youths who have not learned healthy, socially acceptable ways of dealing with interpersonal differences, argument and violence can easily become the coping measures of choice -- sometimes with disastrous results.

Just as such responses are learned, so too can appropriate, non-violent behavior, says Michaelene Pepera, director of the Peaceful Schools, Peaceful Communities

(PS/PC) program developed and coordinated by the Center for Peace &Conflict Studies at Wayne State University.

The training model, which has been used in several Detroit public schools, received a big boost recently from the Metropolitan Life Foundation of New York. The foundation provided a $100,000 grant to expand services to 10 elementary and middle schools on Detroit's east side.

Through the PS/PC training program, teachers, support personnel, parents, grandparents and students learn skills that foster peaceful resolution of conflict. Negotiation, mediation, conciliation and tolerance are the watchwords.

Training begins with the adults. "By learning to handle conflicts in their own lives, they can model behavior more effectively for the youths they are in contact with every day," Pepera explains.

For teachers, this means integrating conflict resolution theory into existing curricula and using these techniques in the classroom. Teachers also are encouraged to discuss the techniques with parents as opportunities arise. "We believe that staff in the schools can intervene appropriately with parents as well as students to reduce stress and violence in the home," says Pepera.

Training for students includes peer mediation programs that provide practice in conflict resolution.

The schools involved in the newest phase of the PS/PC program are in neighborhoods around the Neighborhood Service Organization's Harper-Gratiot Family Services Center, which houses various service projects and a Michigan Department of Social Services branch office. Clients of the center are mostly low-income persons who are single heads of households. Many are parents or guardians of children at risk of becoming school dropouts.

The program staff at the university is training staff members at the family center and working with them to reach adults who come there for services. Frederic Pearson, director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, points out that this is an innovative approach that "takes youth conflict resolution beyond the school walls."

Pepera notes that improved parent-child and teacher-parent relationships will provide behavioral and problem solving models for students. "It may also increase participation by parents in the school environment and the accountability of student, school and family," she says.

East side schools participating in the expanded program are Cooper, Henderson, A.L. Holmes, Stephens, Chandler, Hutchinson and Blackwell Elementary Schools,Joy and Burroughs Middle Schools and Lee Trainable Center.