HOOPESTON — A video about the impact of violence in the Vermilion County community done by Hoopeston High School students will be unveiled at a school district meeting Tuesday.

The project, funded by the Illinois Health Cares Vermilion County Grant, began last fall.

“One of the goals of this grant is to make health-care professionals and the public aware of the impact violence has on people’s lives, no matter where they live or how safe they think they are,” said Amy Marchant, the CEO of CRIS Senior Services in a press release.

Marchant wrote the grant and oversees its implementation.

“We discussed several different methods, but costs were prohibitive; then Linda Bolton came up with some ideas, including partnering with Dan Reed’s high school media class, which made the project even more meaningful,” Marchant said.

Reed’s Hoopeston High School Media Class students shot all the video for the project and did the editing and post-production work.

Titled, “vi•o•lence”, the video shows clips of interviews done with members of Vermilion County families whose lives have been significantly impacted by violence, as well as interviews with representatives of community organizations and agencies who deal with violence and see its impact on the community.

Vermilion County Health Department’s Community Relations Coordinator Linda Bolton, produced the video and conducted the interviews.

Bolton said the video was kept short so it can be shown to community groups and organizations, but a new project in the fall with Hoopeston students will create a longer version.

“There was too much we had to leave out in the short version, so in the fall, we will work with the students to put together a longer video containing the entire interviews that can be used in workshops, teaching situations, etc, to help people understand the toll violence takes on our community, and the need to work together to control it,” Bolton said in a press release.

She said the project impacted everyone involved, “As a reporter in my former career, I conducted many interviews, but these were some of the most challenging I can ever recall, because these family members shared so much with us, and each of the students involved were impacted in some manner.” Students involved in taping the project’s interviews participated in a de-briefing after the interviews were completed to talk about lessons learned; they were encouraged to seek counseling if needed. “We taped that de-briefing so we can use parts of it on the longer version to help people also understand the impact this project had on the students,” Bolton says.

The video will be shown to Hoopeston school district faculty/staff at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Hoopeston High School Auditorium. Marchant then plans to begin sharing the video with community organizations and groups to raise awareness and initiate dialogue about working together to make the community safer.

Interviews for the video began last fall and wrapped up in December. Reed, Bolton and the students have been working since the first of the year to complete the editing and post-production. Funding for supplies and materials was provided through the Illinois Health Cares – Vermilion County Grant, along with a donation from Catholic Charities, and an in-kind donation of staff time by the Vermilion County Health Department.

The Illinois Health Cares — Vermilion County Grant provides funding for a multi-year approach to raising awareness within the healthcare profession about elderly, domestic, and sexual violence.

“Doctors and nurses are sometimes the only hope a victim of violence may have to get help,” Marchant says. Raising awareness within the public also is a goal of the grant.