Our Expertise
Institute Projects and Expertise
The Institute is currently involved in several collaborative projects with community-based providers, schools, other university partners, county and state government entities and law enforcement organizations.
Virtually all projects involve comprehensive, multi-disciplinary and multi-system preventive interventions. Institute projects typically include, but are not limited to, four areas:
- youth and families involved in multiple Systems of Care
- the relationship between Violence and Mental Health
- School-based Violence Prevention
- Law Enforcement approaches to violence
Systems of Care
Several Institute projects involve research and evaluation of programs for youth and families involved in multiple systems of care including mental health, education, substance use and juvenile justice.
One example of our systems of care work is a recent project funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency. Project Tapestry is an $18.5 million demonstration and research project that identifies, serves and follows youth and families from Cuyahoga County, Ohio, with significant behavioral and mental health needs. The Institute serves as the major research and evaluation partner for Project Tapestry, which examines systems at three overall levels.
The systems level includes assessments of how large, child-serving systems develop coordinated planning, governance and service delivery structures, and policies to better serve youth with severe emotional disturbances.
For individual treatment programs, Tapestry seeks to identify and implement effective, scientifically-based best practices.
Lastly, the Institute is responsible for interviewing and tracking over a three-year, post intervention period youth and family behavior and mental health outcomes.
Tapestry requires collaboration at multiple levels, within a variety of systems and with a diverse set of community partners.
Violence and Mental Health
One example of the Institute work on violence and mental health is the Children Who Witness Violence (CWWV) initiative. The program was initially created in five communities in Cuyahoga County to intervene with families and provide services to children who have been exposed to violence.
Police officers serve as the main referral source because law enforcement officers are often the first to respond to domestic violence situations. When a violent incident is witnessed by a child, the police officer refers the family to the Children Who Witness Violence program by calling a crisis hot line. The intervention team will respond to the family within the next 24 hours to provide crisis services and to subsequently gather information about the incident and about child mental health and family functioning.
The program has been operating in Cuyahoga County since 1998 and since its inception has served over 5,000 children. In 2002 the Summit County, the Children Who Witness Violence Program was created to model the Cuyahoga County program. It currently is being implemented in Akron, Ohio, in collaboration with Akron Children’s Hospital and 28 community partners.
The Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence serves as research partner to the Children Who Witness Violence initiative. We gather and analyze information about violent incidents and their relationship to mental health, assess the effectiveness of project
School-based Violence Prevention
ISPV has been involved in the design and evaluation of school-based violence prevention programs since its inception. Most recently, ISPV has served as research and evaluation partner to several Safe Schools/ Healthy Students (SS/HS) sites. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Safe Schools/ Healthy Students initiative promotes safe and healthy environments for children to learn and develop without the distractions of violence that disrupt the school climate and reduce student academic achievement.
The Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District is currently implementing and evaluating a comprehensive plan to promote safe schools and reduce rates of youth violence and substance use. The plan includes several evidence-based and developmentally appropriate programs that address risk on a continuum from universal to youth at the highest risk for violence and substance use.
As the independent local evaluator, the ISPV measures specific program outcomes, assists the school and community partners with the identification and implementation of science-based best practices, and provides feedback using project outcomes to improve long-term efforts and to change policies and practices that can contribute to reduced violence and substance use.
Law Enforcement
In 2002, ISPV was selected as the research partner for the Northern District of Ohio’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Project Safe Neighborhoods is the federal government’s violence reduction strategy that requires collaborative problem-solving approaches to decreasing gun violence among juveniles and adults in local communities.
As a Project Safe Neighborhoods Research Partner, ISPV:
- performs geo-mapping analyses to identify local concentrations of gun violence
- works with the Project Safe Neighborhoods team of local and federal law enforcement and justice system partners to devise effective interventions
- provides analytical support for the Violent Fugitive Task Force
- examines the effects of various interventions over time.
Areas targeted by the Northern District of Ohio’s PSN initiative have included Akron, Cleveland, Toledo and Youngstown.
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230 Carol A. Cartwright Hall
Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242
Phone: 330-672-7917
Email: kretherf@kent.edu