The U.S. Department of Justice awarded the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu $2 million over three years to increase the university’s threat assessment and violence prevention capabilities in K–12 private, charter, and public schools and their communities throughout Hawaiʻi.
“This award is significant, both in the amount and the scope since it not only continues to build knowledge and capacity of Behavior Threat Assessment and Management within K–12 schools and connected communities, but it helps the state with identifying options for violence prevention to assist with keeping our school communities safer during these challenging times,” said Principal Investigator Bev Baligad, who serves as UH West Oʻahu’s director of compliance, Title IX coordinator and Behavior Intervention Team manager.
The project is titled, “Hawaiʻi State Targeted Violence Prevention—School Community and Threat Assessment Team Training and Capacity Building.”
Goals and expected outcomes
- increased threat assessment and violence prevention capabilities on involved campuses
- sustainable violence prevention practices in K–12 schools and its communities
- successful application of bystander intervention techniques by members of school and campus communities
- school Behavior Threat Assessment teams operating under national best practice
- improved cultural perception of threat assessment and violence prevention practices in school and campus communities
Partnerships that will support the project include the Hawaiʻi Office of Homeland Security, the Hawaiʻi State Fusion Center (HSFC), K–12 private and charter schools, Threat Team Hawaiʻi, and other public and private organizations and businesses. Additionally, UH West Oʻahu is a lead implementing partner in the State Targeted Violence Prevention Implementation Plan, working closely with Homeland Security and HSFC to achieve state-wide violence prevention.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded targeted violence and terrorism prevention grants to Baligad in 2021 and 2022, totaling more than $1.3 million, to help build Hawaiʻi state school threat assessment teams and to further state community awareness efforts.
“UH West Oʻahu intends to fulfill its commitment to the prevention of acts of targeted violence in Hawaiʻi by working closely with schools and fostering the establishment of sustainable threat assessment teams and practices,” Baligad said.
For more visit Ka Puna O Kaloʻi.
—By Zenaida Serrano Arvman
