A brand new $2 million grant will go towards serving to 40 Colorado faculties stop violence amid a 12 months of report faculty shootings in America, in response to a Monday College of Colorado information launch.
The U.S. Bureau of Justice offered the grant to CU’s Middle for the Research and Prevention of Violence which intends to supply anti-bullying packages and psychological well being sources to cease violence earlier than it happens, the information launch stated.
College shootings hit a report single-year excessive in the USA this 12 months — 40 faculty shootings have killed 34 folks and injured 88, the information launch stated.
In the meantime, bullying and youth gun violence are additionally rising, CU stated, as psychological well being points exacerbated by the pandemic stress already under-resourced faculties.
“We’re listening to from many various faculties and seasoned faculty security practitioners that this is likely one of the hardest years they’ve ever skilled,” stated CSPV Director Beverly Kingston. “These children have missed a number of faculty at actually important developmental occasions, and the psychological well being wants are unprecedented. But a number of faculties are having a tough time discovering workers, a lot much less worrying about faculty security.”
The three-year grant, STOP College Violence, will implement the Secure Communities Secure Faculties program, a research-based initiative created within the wake of the 1999 Columbine Excessive College taking pictures.
College students and workers are given surveys to find out the prevalence of bullying, melancholy, nervousness, psychological well being sources and a bystander reporting system within the faculty.
Primarily based on these outcomes, program directors put collectively plans, coaching and technical help to implement on the faculties.
If a faculty lacks staffing or sources to handle faculty security, this system helps determine steps to maneuver ahead with the sources they’ve or safe cash to do extra, CU stated.
The Middle for the Research and Prevention of Violence is recruiting Colorado faculties all for collaborating. An faculty can contact the middle, CU stated.
The grant is the newest of $100 million value of anti-violence grants the middle has acquired since its inception 30 years in the past.
“Violence could also be rising however we’ve got options,” Kingston stated. “These initiatives are about us coming collectively to implement a complete public well being method and to face larger than violence.”