Violence Threat Risk Assessment (VTRA) Level 1

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About this Learning Opportunity

Level 1 VTRA - Theory and Practice

The primary purpose of this two day training is to teach school administrators, counsellors, police officers, and other related partners (community mental health, social services, probation, etc.) the multidisciplinary process of determining if a threat maker actually poses a risk to a target or targets they have threatened.

The primary purpose of this two day training is to teach school administrators, counsellors, police officers, and other related partners (community mental health, social services, probation, etc.) the multidisciplinary process of determining if a threat maker actually poses a risk to a target or targets they have threatened. Teams also assess students who already have histories of violence and are concerned about further and/or more serious violence potential. Serious violence is an evolutionary process and most students leave (intentionally or unintentially) signs and indicators. Teams are trained to become local experts at collecting data that helps to paint a clear picture of how high risk a student may be to carry out an act of violence towards themselves or others and what the appropriatew intervention should be based on that data. Teams are also trained to address the newer issue of “unauthored threats” that have plagued schools across Canada for the past few years. The level I training is best implemented when the local school districts (divisions) across the country take the lead to organize their partners to be trained together. From the schools and school districts there should be principals and vice-principals, counsellors, social workers, psychologists, and others represented from every school as well as district level personnel including the superintendent(s) and director(s). From our community partners there should be representatives from police, mental health, child protection (social services), youth robation, local hospital staff who conduct emergency violence and suicide risk assessments, and others as determined by the unique characteristics of your communities.

Level One VTRA Training Outline

DAY ONE 

• Introduction
• Training Overview
• Traumatic Event Systems (TES) Model Crisis vs. Traumatic Events Ground Zero and Impact Zones
  • Traumatic Aftermath and High Risk Student Behavior
  • Critical Periods
  • Targeted vs. Non-Targeted Violence
  • Human Target Selection
  • Site Selection
• Unidimensional Assessments
• Safe Schools Initiative: U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education
• FBI:  Four-Pronged Assessment Model
• High Risk Students:Traditional vs. Non-Traditional Fluidity between Homicidal and Suicidal Domains
  • Threat Makers in the Aftermath
  • Identification with the Aggressor
  • Girl Violence
• Responding to threats in the aftermath: The effects of Over-reacting and Under-reacting.

DAY TWO

• School Dynamics
• Multidisciplinary Violence Threat/Risk Assessment Teams: Acts of Legislation and Legal Issues
• Threat/Risk Assessment Process
  • Stage I Assessment
  • Stage II Assessment
  • Stage III Implementation
• Assessing Violence Potential: Protocol for Dealing with High Risk Student Behavior (Ninth Edition)
• Case Studies

This session is being offered on a cost recovery basis.

About the Facilitator

Bonnie Randall

Bonnie Randall has been a clinical social worker in her home province of Alberta for close to 30 years. Her early career was spent working alongside Kevin Cameron as a Family School Liaison Counselor with Horizon School Division in the years leading up to the Taber School Shooting. Following that, she held an 11-year tenure with Child Protection in West-Central Alberta, carrying an investigation caseload and acting as case manager for high-risk teens. Bonnie moved into a therapeutic role in 2005 for Alberta Health Services Addictions and Mental Health. Years of providing clinical counseling to clients with substance abuse disorders and
historical trauma allowed Bonnie to reflect deeply on metrics like the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Scale and the Resiliency Scale—each of which measure how early adversity and early supports quite literally change the trajectory of brain development. It was that work which inspired Bonnie to pioneer her own workshop: ACEs High, But Resiliency Holds The Winning Hand, then the supplement training of ACEs Through A VTRA Lens which examines the many intersects between a high ACEs score and the traits of the Individuals of Concern we often refer to as ‘Empty Vessels’ in Violent Threat Risk Assessment. The seriousness of early
adversity combined with the measure of hope within resiliency make these workshops truly unique and inspirational; healing is not only possible but also attainable when we match resource to risk then support people in making the lasting gains which, quite literally, change their lives.

Bonnie lives in the Greater Edmonton Area with her husband, an educator and school principal for close to thirty years. When she is not immersed in clinical practice or out on the road for CTIP, Bonnie is a fiction novelist whose most recent fiction title, the Critically Acclaimed novel The Shadow Collector, rapidly became an Amazon #1 Bestseller upon its release in May 2023.
She is currently busy working on Book II in her Shadow Valley series.

Bonnie Randall has been a clinical social worker in her home province of Alberta for close to 30 years. Her early career was spent working alongside Kevin Cameron as a Family School Liaison Counselor with Horizon School Division in the years leading up to the Taber School Shooting. Following that, she held an 11-year tenure with Child Protection in West-Central... Read more »

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