MULTNOMAH COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT BJA STOP SCHOOL VIOLENCE

Multnomah County Health Department (MCHD) proposes a Category 2 STOP School Violence project with the goal to empower school personnel and students to prevent and respond to violence and mental health crises through trauma-informed, equity-promoting, and youth-driven approaches. MCHD’s project will take a public health approach to school violence prevention, focused on reducing risk factors and promoting protective factors, with emphasis on individual- and relationship skill-building and policy, systems, and environmental changes in school settings. Following MCHD’s departmental pursuit of health equity and State school safety priorities, the project will address systemic and interpersonal biases that fuel disproportionate impact of school violence of LGBTQ and youth of color.

MCHD will provide training and technical assistance to middle and high school teachers and other school staff, school districts, and key partners to build schools’ capacity to implement effective practices and programs with students. MCHD will implement the project in the six main school districts in Multnomah County, the project’s service area, as well as Multnomah Education Service District, which operates 15 school programs and partners with other districts around special education and alternative education.

Primary activities include training middle school teachers/staff in the School-Based Social and Emotional Learning-based curriculum Get Real; training middle and high school teachers/staff in Universal Classroom Management techniques, like the Engaged Classrooms approach, and Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA); helping school districts incorporate School-Based Conflict Resolution Education into their Comprehensive Health Plans through professional development for teachers (e.g., training in the Leadership Program’s Violence Prevention Project or Peers Making Peace) and youth-led awareness campaigns and initiatives. MCHD will also work with community-based organizations that provide afterschool programming, educational support, and other youth programming to implement youth-led Conflict Resolution Education (CRE) activities to reinforce in-school programming. The project will leverage MCHD’s school-based health centers as referral resources for confidential, youth-specific mental health services, as well as their Youth Action Councils for youth-led activities. Deliverables will include 20 trainings to teachers and school personnel on violence prevention programs; 12 YMHFA trainings for teachers, school personnel, and administrators; 225 teachers/school personnel trained; 3,500 students receiving in-class school violence prevention education; 6 Comprehensive Health Plans updated to include School-Based CRE (one per district); 4 youth-led awareness campaigns. Anticipated outcomes include increased teacher/school personnel capacity to provide school violence prevention education, teacher and student awareness of mental health resources, student knowledge and skills, and school policies preventing school violence.