Project SAFE

Project SAFE Abstract

Tuscaloosa City Schools’ (TCS), Tuscaloosa, Alabama,  project SAFE will provide opportunities, through the BJA STOP School Violence grant program, to offer opportunities to plan before a crisis event happens by involving parents, students, the community, and staff from schools, mental & public health agencies, and the Tuscaloosa Police Department in a collaborative endeavor to develop a comprehensive school violence\safety plan for  TCS and our community.  Project SAFE will build the capacity of TCS schools to support the safety of all youth by engaging all stakeholders in cross-sector planning with law enforcement to make the district’s crisis\violence intervention plans.  TCS is a midsize city school district, has many needs in the area of a district-wide violence prevention. The school system serves 10, 538 students in grades K-12 at 21 school sites.  Our project director will be responsible for the implementation and data collection for the following Goals 1) Improve school Climate; 2) Improve school safety; 3) Reduce school violence through support programs; 4) Provide a DOJ approved violence prevention program and 5) Plan in advance for potential crisis\violent issues.  Outcomes of these programs will be: 1) Staff will identify potential safe school issues through behavioral threat assessments; 2) School teams will complete training and self-assessment threats for each school; 3) Students will complete a behavioral health threat assessment; 4) Number of SEL strategies taught will increase; and 5) staff will complete constructive practices for emergencies.  Violence Prevention & Development of Violence Prevention Teams objectives will be: a) Implementation of evidence based school violence prevention plan; and b) Conduct assessments of schools and individuals to identify school violence risks and individuals determined to be a potential threat to themselves or others receive a school threat assessment and are referred for services; and c) Establish or enhance multidisciplinary teams that identify school violence threats and mitigate those risks.  Activities will include: 1) Staff school behavioral threat assessments; 2) Threat/site assessment and comprehensive school violence\safety planning program through Campus SEL Teams; 3) Students participate in a comprehensive behavioral health threat assessment tool; 4) Students, staff and parents participate in a School Climate Survey; and 5) Community participates in school violence\crisis planning and activities.