Creating Respectful, Violence-Free, Productive Workplaces

Abstract Workplaces throughout the United States are struggling to understand and address the issue of workplace violence. The Workplace Action Team of The Initiatives for Violence-Free Families and Communities in Ramsey and Hennepin Counties, Minnesota, is a group of Minneapolis-St. Paul professionals who have worked together since 1990 to create and implement tools that work, having built them around a comprehensive strategy of developing violence-free, respectful work environments. The purpose of this article is to describe the community-wide partnership that the Workplace Action Team represents, outline the principles the team has developed that underscore respectful, violence-free work environments, and demonstrate the tools and strategies that are beginning to make a difference in workplaces in the Minne-apolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.