Questions Reveal Answers

 

IF old school advice and hundreds and hundreds of stop bullying programs/curriculums were the solution – why would the CDC cite bullying and suicide as a significant public health problem?
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullying-suicide-translation-final-a.pdf

 

IF old school advice and stop bullying programs/curriculums were the solution, why would a 2013 Student Survey of nearly 4,500 students in schools across 19 states reveal that 85% of students witness/experience bullying in their schools?
https://www.awareity.com/public/StudentSafetyReport.asp

 

IF millions and millions of dollars spent on security products was the solution – shouldn’t campus and community violence prevention be millions of times better?

Do school/college leaders believe they can afford and implement security systems like Ft. Hood and the Navy Yard?  Even their maximum security efforts did not prevent preventable violence.

 

IF all of the stop sexual assault organizations, PSAs and related programs were the total solution – shouldn’t sexual assaults be decreasing and prevention efforts improving?

Unfortunately these are the facts:

 

IF incident reporting systems (which have been around for generations) were the solution for preventing incidents and tragedies – why are so many incidents and tragedies still occurring, even when they had incident reports and pre-incident indicators?

 

IF passing laws and creating policies were the solution – why aren’t the laws and policies that have been around for generations making things better?

 

Evidence-based data reveals dangerous gaps…and answers too!

(When you research hundreds and hundreds of post-event reports like we do here at Awareity, the data reveals the right solutions and the right tools to eliminate these dangerous gaps and disconnects.)

Evidence-based data from post-event reports clearly reveals why schools, colleges, organizations and communities are failing to prevent preventable incidents, headlines and tragedies.

For example, most organizations believe because they purchased anti-bullying programs programs, spent thousands/millions on security products, offered assemblies, implemented an incident reporting system and/or case management system and created anti-bullying policies they are equipped to proactively prevent preventable incidents and tragedies…but evidence-based data from post-tragedy reports reveal most schools and colleges that experienced incidents and tragedies had some or all of the above.   

Please do not fall into the trap of believing student safety will get better by using the same status quo systems and approaches.  When you stop and think about it, old school systems and approaches DO NOT make sense with new risks and threats. Add in overwhelming evidence, and it is clear old school approaches are not solutions for effectively preventing preventable incidents. 

What are schools, colleges, organizations and communities missing?  What does the evidence-based data tell us about answers and solutions?

In the big picture, awareness and accountability programs (PSAs, assemblies, etc.), proactive prevention solutions and reactive response solutions (security devices) and are all necessary and critically needed – however most schools, colleges, organizations and communities only have two out of the three – the first (awareness and accountability) and the last resort (security reacting to the threat at the front door).  School, college, organization and community leaders must understand the evidence and overwhelming data that they are missing the second link (proactive prevention), otherwise dangerous gaps will lead to more failures and tragedies.

The good news is numerous forward thinking leaders across the nation have taken this data seriously and realize “next generation” prevention solutions are needed for improving student safety, campus safety, employee safety, community safety and proactively preventing preventable incidents and tragedies.

Proactive prevention requires the right tools for ongoing awareness and accountability at the individual level, threat assessment, behavior assessment, secure information sharing, collaboration with third-party resources, automated reminders, escalation of at-risk individuals and situations, mental health services and resources, audit-ready documentation of actions taken for legal due diligence, compliance and internal controls and more.

Contact Awareity to learn what an evidence-based, award-winning, proven, next generation prevention platform can do for your school, college, organization and community.  Based on success stories from leading schools, colleges, organizations and communities, and for pennies on the dollar compared to what you are spending today, you can start PREVENTING and stop reacting.

Have you heard of the boiling frog syndrome? To continue on to Part Three of the Prevention Gapidemic blog series, click here.