Widening the Gap

The pleas began almost immediately after the massacre in Littleton, Colo., in April: What could be done about the worsening plague of youth violence that left 15 dead when two students opened fire on their classmates?

“We heard from a variety of groups, that’s what really got our attention,” said Victoria Bryan, co-founder of Stop-Gap, a Santa Ana-based nonprofit group that for more than two decades has been using drama therapy to help thousands cope with problems such as teen pregnancy, alcoholism and date rape.

The troupe’s first public response to Littleton comes Wednesday with “Protecting Our Children: A Community Forum on Issues Related to Youth and Violence,” to be held at Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Corp.

The goal, according to a flier for the free event, “is to create a dialogue between people who care about children’s rights to live and study free from fear.”

Among the scheduled participants are Orange County Supt. of Schools John F. Dean, high school counselors and representatives from the county’s Human Relations Council and Probation Department.

Most of Stop-Gap’s work takes place in social-service agencies, hospitals and schools. Its drama therapists stage interactive dramatic skits to help audience members--youths and adults who literally get into the act--learn to better handle life-threatening illnesses, physical abuse, juvenile delinquency and other troubles.

Based on the concept that interactive role play instructs emotionally and intellectually, the group annually visits more than 1,300 Southern California classrooms. The increasing workload led to the creation last year of an institute to teach others statewide to do what Stop-Gap does. And this summer, the institute takes its first strides toward going national with its first out-of-state contract.

The Washington, D.C.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has commissioned Stop-Gap to create an interactive play to complement its year-old Know the Rules Campaign, which uses billboards, public service announcements and educational programs to help teens keep themselves safe from abduction, rape and worse. (Those “rules” include “Don’t go out alone,” “Always tell an adult where you’re going,” and “Say no if you feel threatened.”)

The partnership between Stop-Gap and NCMEC, which works with the U.S. Department of Justice, federal and local law enforcement, parents and child advocates working to find missing children and prevent youth victimization, took flight at the recommendation of former Orange County Supervisor and local NCMEC board member William Steiner.

“Interactive drama works so well with teens, who want to be a part of whatever is going on,” said Nancy A. McBride, executive director of the Florida branch of NCMEC. “We wanted to get away from talking-head lectures--you know, ‘don’t do this, do that’--and incorporate role-play.”

The next step in Stop-Gap’s effort to take its training on the road will be to teach (in three days at Stop-Gap’s Santa Ana suite) a handful of Florida-based professionals how to stage “Know the Rules” in their local schools, beginning this September. These “trainees”--school counselors, certified drama therapists or social workers--will be located with help from NCMEC.

If all goes well, Stop-Gap will aggressively market its training program nationwide. But Bryan holds no illusions about how much the group can do.

“We may not be able to prevent another Littleton,” she said, “but I hope we can empower students to understand some of the ways that they can keep themselves and their friends safe, and in doing so, diminish the fear.

“We’re not just talking about terrible things like shootings,” she added. “We’re talking about the sense of fear and disconnectedness and alienation that those incidents leave behind in their wake, and which, in many cases, can be just as devastating.”

* Stop-Gap Institute presents “Protecting Our Children: A Community Forum on Issues Related to Youth and Violence” Wednesday at Ingram Micro, 1600 E. St. Andrew Place, Santa Ana. 5:30-7 p.m. Free, but reservations recommended. (714) 979-7061.

Zan Dubin can be reached by e-mail at Zan.Dubin@latimes.com.