The Maine School Safety Center’s Maine Safe Schools Initiative focuses on creating safer schools through training, guidance, and technical support for the whole school and the whole student. We offer several training opportunities, through this initiative, to improve your school's safety. Our flagship training is the School Safety Specialist program offered through Eastern Maine Community College. We also offer in depth training in Behavioral Threat Assessment Management, Restorative Practices, and School Emergency Management.
Behavioral Threat Assessment Management
Our in-depth Behavioral Threat Assessment Management (BTAM) training educates school-based teams in the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) to support them with identifying, assessing, and intervening with students who may be on the pathway to violence and support them at the earliest point possible. The CSTAG method was developed by Dr. Dewey Cornell and his associates at the university of Virginia. This training is offered for FREE. To sign your school up for the next training, contact Dr. Karen Barnes.
Restorative Practices
Our in-depth Restorative Practices training is called Creating a Culture of Care in Schools and focuses on training all school staff in how to create a Restorative School culture by emphasizing relationship from both a preventative and responsive lens. MSSC Restorative coaches will train an implementation team through a four day in-person training and then work collaboratively to guide the entire school staff through an asynchronous nine module training hosted by Eastern Maine Community College. Restorative coaches will provide on-going support for each school for at least an additional calendar year, as well as assist in the creation of Restorative Codes of Conduct and offer trainings for caregivers. This training is offered for FREE. To sign your school up for the next training, contact Stacey Barlow.
School Emergency Management
Our in-depth School Emergency Management training offers additional guidance in conducting exercises and drills, mass casualty events, multi-hazard planning, and continuity of operations. The following courses are offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and are completely FREE!