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Michigan pilot program to help curb acts of mass violence

$15 million state grant will support targeted violence prevention

Editor’s note: Initially called the Michigan Model, the program was renamed Prevent 2 Protect in 2023.

During a critical time in U.S. history, and in a year that has seen more than 350 mass shootings, Michigan State University’s Department of Psychiatry is launching a pilot program – with a $15 million grant from the state of Michigan – to help curb acts of targeted school violence in schools and spare families from unthinkable trauma before it’s too late.

The project is a collaborative program between the MSU Department of Psychiatry — a shared department in the Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and Human Medicine at MSU — and Safe and Sound Schools, a national non-profit school safety advocacy and resource center founded by Michele Gay who lost her daughter, Josephine, who was a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The five-year pilot program established a research-to-practice hub in MSU’s Department of Psychiatry to provide guidance, training and consultation to Michigan school communities. The project will also assign intensive support teams to provide case management and mentoring services to high-risk/high-need adolescents and their caregivers in five school communities.

Learn more from MSU Today here.

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