The cases project will support and expand on promoting a positive school environment and increase school safety by providing evidence-based violence prevention training for students, teachers, parents…

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded a $982,143 Cooperative Agreement under the STOP School Violence Program (CFDA 16.839) to the Corporation Odyssey Family Counseling Center. The project aims to support and expand evidence-based violence prevention training for students, teachers, parents, and other school volunteers to promote a positive school environment and increase school safety. Key objectives include establishing a school violence prevention coalition, providing violence prevention training for at least 600 middle and high school students over 3 years, delivering mental health awareness training for at least 90 teachers and school staff, and recruiting and training student peer educators to reinforce the violence prevention message. The project will serve schools in the Atlanta, GA area.

The cases project will support and expand on promoting a positive school environment and increase school safety by providing evidence-based violence prevention training for students, teachers, parents and other volunteers serving at the schools. The specific program objectives that will be implemented towards achieving this goal include: objective 1) to establish a school violence prevention coalition involving students, parents, teachers and other school staff members, violence prevention involved community-based organizations, and cases program staff members to meet monthly throughout the life of the project, as assesses by a review of coalition meeting attendance records. Objective 2) to provide evidence-based violence prevention training for at least 150 middle and high school students during project year 1, and 225 each during years 2 and 3, for a total of at least 600 students over the life of the program, as assessed by a review of training attendance records. Objective 3) to provide evidence-based violence prevention via mental health awareness training for at least 30 teachers, other school staff members or volunteers each project year, for a total of at least 90 individuals over the life of the program, as assessed by a review of training attendance records. Objective 4) to recruit, train or maintain at least 4 students as peer educators each project year to work within the schools and the community to reinforce and further disseminate the message of violence prevention each project year, in addition to serving on the cases community coalition, as assessed by a review of peer educator training records. Objective 5) to have all trained teachers and other adults in mental health awareness work through the schools and the cases case manager to make referrals to mental health providers and for other needed services, as assessed via a quarterly review of the files of the case manager.