The JPRC has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) under its Reimagining Justice: Testing a New Model of Community Safety funding. This award provides the JPRC the opportunity to work in partnership with leaders in Greenville, South Carolina, to test an innovative approach to improving community safety for neighborhoods experiencing high rates of less serious and low-level criminal offenses. The JPRC will work in partnership with the mayor’s office, the police department, the local NAACP chapter, and the Sterling School for the next 3 years to lead the implementation of Voices of Informed Community Engagement for Safety (VOICES). This project will engage the community to assess needs and to enhance and evaluate a new community safety strategy in the Nicholtown neighborhood of Greenville.
Project
Understanding the Quality and Perceived Impacts of School Resource Officer (SRO) Training
Although the nation’s first school policing program was established in the 1950s, officer-led school-based prevention programs, federal legislation, and high-casualty school shootings have contributed to a proliferation of officers in schools over the last few decades. It is widely recognized that school officers take on a unique role compared to their community-based colleagues, and having school officers on campus who are not properly trained may lead to negative impacts for students and schools. The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) serves as the nation’s largest provider of training for school officers. Although training options exist, little is known about the quality or outcomes associated with school officer training. NIJ funded the JPRC to partner with NASRO to conduct the first national evaluation of this training.
Providing Behavioral Threat Assessment Training and Implementation Support
We are committed to helping schools, districts, and state departments of education address school violence. In collaboration with Navigate360, we are partnering on ten U.S. Department of Justice (via the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance) school safety grants under the STOP School Violence Program. The ten grants are led by the following education entities:
- California: Poway Unified School District
- Maine: The Maine School Safety Center
- Michigan: Lenawee County Office of Emergency Management
- Nevada: Nevada Department of Education
- New York: Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Ulster County
- Ohio: Education Service Center of Northeast Ohio
- Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit, Chester County
- Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State School Safety Center
- South Carolina: Pickens County
- Virginia: Loudoun County Public Schools
In each site, JPRC staff are working to enhance the development and implementation of behavioral threat assessment teams by providing accessible threat assessment training, providing suicide awareness and prevention training, implementing related technology-enabled support, and developing practical implementation resources for schools. We are also partnering with local agencies to identify opportunities for improvement and implement their programs with fidelity. Through this collective effort, we will advance work being done in schools to prevent violent acts and cultivate supportive, inclusive, and safe school environments.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Teen Pregnancy Program Evaluation with Justice-Involved Youth
The JPRC is a partner with Urban Strategies LLC, which was selected for one of four nationwide awards to rigorously evaluate promising interventions that can contribute to adolescent optimal health, prevent teen pregnancy, and/or reduce sexually transmitted infection rates monitored by the Office of Population Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Urban Strategies and the JPRC are implementing and evaluating a sexual health program using a quasi-experimental design. The project is being implemented with justice-involved youth in Southern California is collaborating with the LA County Probation and group homes.
Montgomery County Drug and Alcohol Prevention Evaluation
WestEd has been funded by the Office of Drug and Alcohol, Department of Health and Human Services, in Montgomery County (PA) since 2018 to assist in evaluation planning, program evaluation implementation, and reporting of alcohol and drug prevention programing in the county. We design data collection procedures, train providers on data collection, and provide analysis and reporting for all evidence-based programs provided to schools as well as other prevention programing offered throughout the county. We also provide assistance with a countywide needs assessment process and future evaluation planning and recommendations throughout the project. This second contract is scheduled to end in 2027. Publications and infographics can be found at the Montgomery County Office of Drug and Alcohol Prevention data website.
Evaluating Substance Abuse Programs in Berks County, Pennsylvania
Building on our team’s success and impactful leadership in the state, we are continuing our partnership with the Council on Chemical Abuse (COCA) in Berks County, Pennsylvania, to evaluate programming related to prevention of substance misuse. The goal of the evaluation is to lead improved understanding of the implementation and results of prevention programs in districts, schools, and communities across the county. Our team is designing data collection procedures, training COCA staff on data collection, and providing analysis and reporting for programs provided in schools, as well as other community-based prevention programming. We will also assist the county in its needs assessment process and reporting.