The VTV Family Outreach Foundation is offering a series of free, confidential, online self-assessment tools for colleges. Dr. Gene Deisinger of SIGMA Threat Management and formerly of Virginia Tech describes how to use VTV's threat assessment tool, as well as some best practices your campus should adopt.Learning about a threat and then assessing it can be a huge challenge for institutions of higher education.

Currently, colleges across the nation have adopted a broad range of approaches to addressing concerns about targeted violence. Many are proactive, collaborative and systematic, which are considered to be attributes of effective threat management programs. That said, according to Dr. Gene Deisinger, who is a managing partner with SIGMA Threat Management Associates and formerly the deputy police chief at Virginia Tech, other programs continue to be fragmented, reactive and dated, so their effectiveness is limited.

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To address this challenge, the VTV Family Outreach Foundation (VTV) has created a new threat assessment tool, which is part of the 32 National Campus Safety Initiative (32NCSI) that will be launched Aug. 13. 32NCSI is a series of free, confidential, online self-assessment tools, covering alcohol and drug prevention and intervention, campus public safety, emergency management, hazing, mental health, missing students, physical security, sexual violence and threat assessments.

Dr. Deisinger helped develop 32NCSI’s threat assessment tool. In this podcast, he describes some of the best practices colleges should adopt so their threat management programs are effective. He also describes how campuses can use the 32NCSI threat assessment tool to address individuals exhibiting concerning behavior.

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