| Nearly
200 people gathered at a national conference held by the Hamilton
Fish Institute (HFI) in Monterey, Calif., June 19, 20 and
21, 2002. Attended by researchers, law enforcement personnel,
counselors, psychologists, and teachers, the conference's
goal was to provide a venue for professional collaboration
while disseminating the latest research on effective practices.
Scholars from the Hamilton Fish Institute’s seven-university
consortium, associated research partners, and noted researchers
from around the country made presentations.
Many
of HFI’s Consortium researchers released the results of their
five-year studies testing the effectiveness of a variety of
intervention programs. Though much of the data is still being
analyzed, early scrutiny indicates that the majority of the
interventions had positive effects on reducing school violence
where they were tested.
“I
went to the conference in Monterey with the expectation of
doing some networking,” said Margaret Daggett, M.Ed., of the
Maricopa County Juvenile Probation department in Phoenix,
Arizona, “but I didn’t expect to find a comprehensive exposé
of the research from the actual researchers! At each presentation,
I found myself wishing I could bi-locate. It was just hard
to choose because I didn’t want to miss any of the presentations.
I would have had to have spent hundreds of hours combing through
the Internet to find the depth and breadth of information
I received at this conference.”
“Part of the conference design,” said Jeff Sprague, HFI Consortium
researcher and a member of the conference
planning team, “was that, rather than focusing on school violence
as
|
|
a
problem, we’ve made a turn toward focusing on increasing the
strength and resilience of children. Understanding how what
we do as professionals, both as researchers and as service
providers, is to provide a context for kids to be safer.”
The
conference was organized around nine thematic strands to assist
attendees with specialized areas of interest in dealing with
violence prevention. These included School-based Education,
Community Involvement, Administrative Approaches, Evidence-based
Practices, School Security, Alternative Education, Minority
Students, Strength-based Approaches and Student-led Strategies.
| “I
would have had to have spent hundreds of hours combing
through the Internet to find the depth and breadth of
information I received at this conference.” |
HFI
would like to thank all of those who attended the conference
as well as all of our presenters: Lori Anderson, Don Blue,
Rob Bressi, Cindy Brown, Joan Burstyn, Joan Byer, Narcissa
Campion, Linelle Clark, Dewey Cornell, Vicky Curry, R. Deborah
Davis, Catherine Debarbieux, Eric Debarbieux, Kippy Dewey,
Dana Edgull, Ken Feske, James Fox, Karin Frey, Mike Furlong,
Kristin Gaugler, Annemieke Golly, Philip Graham, James Griffin,
Gene Jacquez, Debby Jennings, Mark Katz, John Kerbs, Cassandra
Kisiel, Annette Klinefelter, Jeffrey Kuhn, Rick Lovell, Emma
Martin, Lynn McCoy-Simandle, Ethelvina MCDowell, Robert McGlenn,
Shannon Means, Carol Metzler, Jamie Middleton, Courtney Miller,
Gale Morrison, Stephen Murray, Vicki Nishioka, Loretta Novince,
Cathy Paine, Bob Patterson, Reece Patterson, Carl Pope, Isabelle
Potts, Carol Rathman, Joy Renfro, Steve Rollin, Julie Rusby,
Russ Skiba, Joseph Spinazzola, Jeff Sprague, Caren Swift,
Pat Tolan, James Trudeau, Bessel van der Kolk, Senator John
Vasconcellos (D-California), Kimberly Williams, and Leah Zak.
If
you weren’t able to attend the conference, don’t worry. You
didn’t entirely miss out. Many of our speakers have made their
presentations
available on the HFI Web site at
http://www.hamfish.org/events/10/speakers.htm
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