I am pleased to say hello and report to you in my first blog post as Executive Director of the VTV family Outreach Foundation. My initial few months as ED have been an exciting and illuminating experience. It is very apparent to me that the foundation has a dedicated number of members and supporters who are committed to furthering its mission and goals.
I enjoyed meeting many of you at the March meeting in Baltimore. It was an excellent meeting with participation by many families. I visited Virginia Tech for the Remembrance Weekend in April where I also had the opportunity to connect with family members.
The 32 NCSI program is moving forward. We will have a detailed report for the annual meeting. At this point nine college beta sites have been selected and are in various stages of completing the survey and providing feedback and critiques. The feedback has been very helpful and will assist us in fine tuning the survey that is eventually distributed.
The National Center for Campus Public Safety (NCCPS) has opened its office in Burlington VT. Kim Vansell, former Director of Public Safety at the University of Central Missouri is the Executive Director. Joe Samaha, Daniel Carter and I attended the open house in June; Joe also attended the inaugural meeting of the Center’s advisory board. We are expecting the Center to significantly advance the cause of safety in colleges and universities.
http://nccpsafety.org
As many of you know we are administering a United States Department of Justice grant in conjunction with the Community Office of Policing (COPS) office. A training curriculum for school resource officers (SROs) will eventually be created. The final product is due for completion in the summer of 2015. I will keep you apprised of our progress. The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) has assisted us.
The Actively Caring for People staff from Virginia Tech have been involved in the COPS grant. We hope to continue working with them in an effort to expand their program to colleges and universities as well.
We have been in discussions with George Mason University to establish an office on their campus. We have made good progress with the GMU administration and I anticipate we will be situated there soon. Part of the GMU relationship involves directly assisting them as they develop their campus safety, wellness and mental health efforts.
I dedicated significant time this summer to connecting with our Congressional supporters. I am impressed with the respect and admiration the respective staff members have for the foundation and its mission and goals. There has been a considerable amount of activity the past few months on Capitol Hill and from the White House regarding issues of sexual violence and assault on college campuses. VTV has been involved in providing input to the discussions and development of legislation.
We have concentrated this past summer on expanding the external relations of the foundation. This involved seeking collaborative opportunities with like-minded organizations. Our relationship with NASRO is an example of those efforts. We have approached several higher education associations to collaborate with and have had success. An example of this effort is the foundation’s involvement in the Violence Prevention Conference being held this January by the National Association of Student Personal Administrators (NASPA). NASPA is a major higher education organization based in Washington that represents college and university student affairs administrators. We were asked to be a cooperative sponsor of their conference and are involved in the program development. We also participated as a sponsor in the annual College and University Police Investigators Conference (CUPIC), held in August.
I will be sharing details about other relationships at the annual meeting. Part of this effort involves developing sponsors for the foundation. Presentations by VTV supporters and staff are a major aspect of our external relations efforts. In the past few months Daniel Carter has made presentations to a variety of groups, e.g., National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE) annual conference, Coalition of Higher Education Associations for Substance Abuse Prevention (COHEASAP) meeting, International Student House Symposium on Campus Safety.
Please let me know if you have any question or concerns by submitting them on our Contact Us page.
Sincerely,
Alan Davis