Caddo Parish STOP School Violence Program

The Caddo Parish School Board (CPSB) in Louisiana will partner with the nonprofit Volunteers for Youth Justice (VYJ) to expand and enhance schools' capacity to prevent, intervene, and address the high level of violence in schools and in the community. CPSB, VYJ, and various governmental agencies and nonprofits have been working collaboratively to prevent and address violence in schools, which has culminated in a one-stop-shop resource, called The Harbor, for students and their families. To facilitate this work, CPSB will hire three school-based mental health specialists and a part-time school-community liaison. These individuals will use evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies (Life Skills, conflict resolution, and restorative practices) to address the myriads of issues at seven school sites and their surrounding communities. This compliments the already existing training and programming implemented by the district. Linking individuals, agencies, and systems in partnership reduces the need to duplicate services, opens lines of communication, and allows a voice to those who may be historically underrepresented yet greatly impacted by violence. CPSB uses the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports - Multi-Tiered System of Supports framework, which has been very successful at addressing issues since its adoption in Louisiana in 2004. However, recent data show strong evidence that the initial triangle model used to describe the percentage of student populations that may need universal, secondary, and tertiary services may not match current challenges faced by schools today. This is especially true in communities with high Adverse Childhood Experiences scores, major trauma, and a lack of resources. In addition, post-pandemic, these numbers skyrocketed leaving schools, mental health agencies, and community agencies scrambling to meet these new demands. CPSB will build community, strengthen relationships, and create safe learning environments through programming, expansion of opportunities for family engagement, prevention and intervention services, providing direct services and wrap-around support, building community partnerships (multidisciplinary taskforce), and adding to and strengthening memorandums of understanding with juvenile justice, mental health, law enforcement, and other agencies.