Tri County Collaborative
Interest Survey
Please read through the available programs and then select the five you are most interested in attending at the bottom of the page.
Available Programs
How Worried Should I Be? Understanding Social Media, Email and Student Writing
Drawing from their book, An Educators Guide to Assessing Threats in Student Writing, Dr. Brian Van Brunt and Jeff Solomon will teach you what to look for when viewing written and video content that may occur on social media, over email or in creative writing assignments. People aren’t always sure often how to measure the level of threat risk in this content and there is too much at stake to be wrong. Joined by Robert Scholz, this presentation will provide a clear roadmap of the elements to look for in these materials to mitigate violence in the community and schools.
Threat and Violence Risk Assessment Foundations
This foundational program will cover several core concepts essential for those interested in preventing targeted violence. As a starting place, Jeff Solomon, Robert Scholz, and Dr. Brian Van Brunt will describe the difference between affective and targeted/mission-orientated violence, offer examples of transient and substantive threats, review core risk and protective/anchor factors used in a violence risk assessment and introduce the importance of threat and risk mitigation over time.
MERIT Active Assailant Training
Jeff Solomon designed this training program to educate participants on how to increase their chance of survival in an active shooter incident. Joined by Robert Scholz and Dr. Brian Van Brunt, the presenters will share concepts built upon the FBI RUN-HIDE-FIGHT program, avoiding any of the scare tactics that may be used in other active shooter programs. MERIT focuses on instilling the mindset of recognizing and moving away from the violence and giving participants a plan of action.
Preventing the Next School Shooting: Understanding the Risk and Protective Factors
Join Jeff Solomon, Robert Scholz and Dr. Van Brunt as they share how to identify risk factors for school shootings. Protective factors can provide a stabilizing and/or mitigating influence on the escalation of risk. These will be discussed as a useful scaffolding for those who tasked with identifying and managing the risk of targeted violence.
Understanding the Incel
This program will explore the nature of "involuntary celibate" individuals with a focus on treatment approaches to address the core nihilistic beliefs and create an opportunity to “off-ramp” those Incels who are on the pathway to violence. Join Dr. Van Brunt, Jeff Solomon, and Robert Scholz as they share about the incel population for psychologists, therapists and treatment providers. This program also is accessible for those working as teachers, front-line responders, law enforcement and administrators.
Addressing the Rise of White Supremacist Violence
Drawing from Van Brunt and Kovach’s recent book, White Supremacist Violence: Understanding the Resurgence and Stopping the Spread, Jeff Solomon, Robert Scholz and Dr. Van Brunt will share the importance of attending to this rise in the school setting through the identification of symbols and speech attached to the movement and key risk factors related to violent escalation. This interactive session will use case studies to highlight key concepts and focus on the use of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team approach to mitigate potential threat and connection to potential resources. The presenters will also share the White Supremist Indoctrination Rubric (WSIR) used by threat teams to better rate the level of buy-in a student has into the overall movement.
Lessons from Uvalde
Understanding the failures of the past offer insight to better approach future mass shootings. Join Dr. Van Brunt, Robert Scholz, and Jeff Solomon as they walk you through the pre-attack behaviors present in the case using the Pathways triage system as well as DarkFox Violence Risk Assessment. Jeff Solomon will then offer insight on the weaknesses of the physical security measures and law enforcement response during the attack itself. The presenters will offer some clear advice and direct on how schools can prevent scenarios like Uvalde in the future.
Violence Risk and Threat Assessment Interviewing Skills
Join Dr. Van Brunt, Robert Scholz, and Jeff Solomon as they draw from their experience interviewing in psychological intakes, differential diagnosis, and the law enforcement/criminal process to offer some practical guidance and examples of best practices in establishing rapport, addressing defensiveness, determining creditability, detecting deception, and ultimately gathering the information needed to complete a violence risk and/or threat assessment.
Crisis De-escalation
Both the counseling and law enforcement fields have important insights into calming affective escalation, including verbal Judo and motivational interviewing techniques. Dr. Van Brunt and Robert Scholz will share from their experience as clinicians with Jeff Solomon sharing from his background as a law enforcement officer on how to address the conflict, frustrations, and differences that lead to an escalation in physical violence in the school and community. This interactive session will provide participants with evidence-based techniques they can use in the classroom to avoid escalation.