Firestorm & University of Alabama Launch Unique Joint Initiative – Press Release
An innovative school violence prevention program, offered in partnership by The University of Alabama College of Continuing Studies and Firestorm®, is launching on October 1, 2017.
No student has died in a school fire in more than fifty years. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said related to acts of violence in our schools.
All behaviors and threats are not equal; it is important that those charged with responding have a systematic means of gathering information, investigating, and analyzing the seriousness of the situation. Warning signs and indicators exist. Preventing a gun from entering a school and thwarting an act of violence before it occurs is a critical planning responsibility for every school.
The Behavioral Risk Threat Assessment Program (BeRThA®) empowers schools to identify, assess, manage and monitor students and others who may exhibit behaviors of concern before they pose a threat of violence to themselves or others.
The unique, web-based training program functions as part of a school’s overall School Violence Prevention Program. With the BeRThA program implemented, schools will be able to recognize, and more importantly, respond to early warning signs related to behaviors of concern that won’t yet fall into the classification of school violence.
Participants will receive special training in the Behavioral Risk Screening process, conflict resolution, and procedures to monitor, document and respond to all reported behaviors of concerns or threats.
Firestorm® has aggregated best practices from many sources in the mental health, threat assessment, law enforcement and education sectors. Extensive resources include guidance from the United States Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Education, Association of Threat Management Professionals, American Psychological Association, Department of Labor, OSHA, Department of Defense, Colorado School Safety Resource Center and other thought leaders on the topic of school violence. These resources, combined with the experience and learnings garnered from hands-on crisis response to episodes of violence by Firestorm Solutions, LLC, resulted in the design of the sophisticated process and methodology for BeRThA. Integrating this information with the extensive Firestorm experience in responding to actual episodes of violence has enabled Firestorm to develop both the methodology and processes embodied in the BeRThA program.
Because money should never outweigh the safety of children, The University of Alabama is underwriting the Firestorm BeRThA licensing fee for the first year for qualifying school organizations.
To learn more, please visit firestorm.com/bertha or call (800) 321-2219.
About Bama At Work
The University of Alabama Bama at Work program is focused on Leadership, Talent & Business – and transferring knowledge and experiences to participants through providing best practices in applied action-learning methods.
Whether on-site or virtual, programs are customized and tailored to meet the challenges of business professionals including strategic intent and current operational challenges. The dedicated team at Bama at Work collaborate with you to build an educational culture of engagement, in delivering real-world, problem-solving approaches focused on specific, personal goals.
The Bama at Work program recognizes that all online programming is not created equal; options in modes of program access allow for flexibility in learning and go beyond lecture to provide dynamic, highly interactive and illustrative learning experiences.
To learn more, visit http://bamaatwork.ua.edu
About Firestorm
Firestorm®, a Novume Solutions™ company, is America’s Crisis Coach®
Since 2005, Firestorm has assisted clients in transforming crisis into value. The Firestorm Predict.Plan.Perform.® methodology combines best-practice consulting with proven crisis management expertise, empowering clients to manage risk and crisis. Firestorm has worked with hundreds of businesses, organizations and schools to keep tens of thousands of employees, customers and school communities safer.
Firestorm assesses, audits, develops, trains and tests strategies and programs encompassing emergency response, business continuity, crisis management, and crisis communications/PR. Firestorm demonstrates thought leadership in workplace violence prevention, cyber-breach response, communicable illness/pandemic planning, predictive intelligence, and every preparedness initiative.
Visit Firestorm at firestorm.com
Press Contact
Karen Masullo, EVP
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