School and Youth Preparedness Workshops scheduled

A series of two-day School Crisis Preparedness Workshops are scheduled in three Wisconsin communities through the remainder of 2006. About 150 participants from Wisconsin PK-12 schools, post-secondary schools, and universities, including administrators, principals, and response team members, will be invited to each of the two-day conferences in Wausau October on 17-18; Green Bay on November 1-2; and Oconomowoc on December 4-5.

“These conferences will help prevent tragedies in our schools," said Office of Justice Assistance Executive Director David Steingraber. "We are committed to providing the safest, most secure learning environment possible."

Michael Dorn, founder of Safe Havens International, a non-profit safety center focused on helping schools prepare for and prevent disasters, will lead the conferences. These school crisis preparedness workshops are part of a larger statewide initiative called Wisconsin School and Youth Preparedness, intended to train Wisconsin’s youth, teachers, and school administrators to deal with crises ranging from injuries and violent weather, to bullying and terrorism.

Wisconsin School and Youth Preparedness programming will directly impact more than 800 youth and 700 teachers and administrators in 2006. Attendees at the workshops will learn to coordinate a tactical site survey, coordinate an annual multidisciplinary risk assessment of their school, learn to identify hazards that might cause incidents or concerns, develop plans to share with local fire and police departments, and develop a complete crisis plan including prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Programming under Wisconsin School and Youth Preparedness is supported by the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance. Programming under the initiative is free to schools and youth. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction school safety experts assisted in the development of the program. Designed to teach attendees to train others, many more faculty and staff can be trained and crises plans developed once participants return to their school districts. For more information, visit www.cehss.org, www.safehavensinternational.org, or contact Mary Jean Erschen at mjerschen@cehss.org or call (608) 592-5200.

Last updated on 10/16/2006