Project CARE is Training Teachers To Curb Teen Violence and Abuse

In 2002, The Pennsylvania Masonic Foundation for Children started Project CARE to fulfill a real need for a training program for secondary school teachers in Pennsylvania. Project CARE consists of five sessions dealing with pertinent topics related to school violence, including teen violence, bullying, drugs, and alcohol. The program, tested in a pilot program in 2001 in Philadelphia, Bethlehem, and Pittsburgh, is designed to provide teachers with the tools and training necessary to keep Pennsylvania students safe and free from violence.

Last year's pilot seminars were so successful that James L. Ernette, R.W.P.G.M., the Foundation's Board President, announced the expansion of the program. In 2002, training sessions are being held in Philadelphia, Bethlehem, Scranton, the Patton Campus at Elizabethtown, Pittsburgh, and the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.

Project CARE is providing training to school and agency personnel, focusing on the F.B.I.'s "Threat Assessment Model." The model is a systematic procedure for threat assessment and intervention that provides a framework for evaluating a student to determine if he or she has the motivation, means, and intent to carry out a proclaimed threat. Hundreds of school personnel have participated in Project CARE training statewide and have gone back to their respective schools and implemented what they have learned by developing violence prevention programs at their schools.

Any one interested in learning more about the "Threat Assessment" model may contact Bro. Raymond G. Brown, Executive Director of the Foundation, at (215) 988-1978.