Managing Risks to Young People

RSM is an established and highly regarded provider of a range of consulting, training, policy and manual design and advisory services aimed at managing risks to young people and educational authorities in a diverse range of settings; both domestic and international.

Recognized by the Directors of the North Carolina Center for Safer Schools, District of Colombia DCPS Security, and the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and the Governor of Virginia (who prepared a personal Certificate of Recognition), RSM has the ability to combine in-house threat assessment and risk management expertise, training development and eLearning production, with an ability to immediately access best-in-class subject matter expertise on a host of specialized subject areas, marks the company out as a leader in the field.

K12 Threat Assessment

High profile school shootings are just one of the current drivers behind significant efforts at state and federal levels to address threats in our schools. Our work in this complex domain sees RSM’s risk management expertise and in-house technical team work alongside recognized experts in psychology, special education, alternative education, counseling, social work and law enforcement, to develop exceptional quality training and capacity building solutions. 

Under contract to the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, RSM developed the training for all Virginia K12 school and division Threat Assessment Teams. The training comprises a one-day foundation course, a one-day applied course and two-day trainer of trainers’ course, and incorporates best adult learning practice, and real-world scenarios brought to life through innovative use of live action filming and custom animation (all developed in-house by the RSM Creative Learning department). RSM also helped to design an accompanying professional electronic and printed manual for Virginia on Critical Incident Response for School Faculty and Staff.

For the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, in addition to a similar scope of work as undertaken for Virginia’s DCJS, RSM’s role is also to develop a self-sustaining Technical Assistance Network that will enable schools to access high-quality advice on the full scope of Threat Assessment issues. 

Capacity Building for School and Campus Security Officers

Under contract to the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, RSM developed the full scope of training and support materials for the mandatory certification courses for both school and [Higher Education] Campus Security Officers. Commended by DCJS for its innovative use of live action videos and custom animated videos (all developed in-house by the RSM Creative Learning department), the programs mark a significant step forward in creating a consistent trained baseline for these key security personnel.

Developing the Awareness and Skills of School Staff

Teaching and administrative staff are often the front-line when it comes to preparedness and response to high threat situations. Recognizing this, RSM developed the Master Instructor School Security (MISS) program, designed to develop both awareness of practical risk management and response techniques, and the skills and ability to deliver this understanding to the wider school community – peers, parents and the kids in school – to create a sustainable approach to risk management at the school level.

School Emergency Management Exercising Program

Our School Emergency Management Leadership Program is designed specifically for institutions of learning to rapidly up-skill school and District management teams in addressing critical and time-sensitive risks by identifying emergent threats, and responding effectively to emergency situations. Our instructors run courses designed around the risk conditions of specific locations. RSM also runs annual refresher training and exercising to ensure a sustainable approach for safety and security risk management.

District and School Resilience Policies, Plans, Guidelines and Protocols

Our resilience program is designed to assist educational authorities in mapping and evaluating risks, and codify knowledge and best practices through integrated document systems.  Our team builds policies, plans, guidelines and protocols at the District level, as well as providing school template systems which can be quickly personalized to meet the unique needs of each location. These systems are aligned to multiple ISO and BSI standards, and operate collaboratively to address risks, and respond to crisis situations. Our team mentors risk owners into the use of document systems, supporting their launch, and ultimately their sustainment.

Services to the wider K12 school community

RSM undertakes a wide range of additional work for the wider school community, including developing a practical security risk assessment tool for use by schools and divisional staff, and undertook site-based security risk assessments on 21 schools on behalf of Chatham Schools NC. We build out resilience document systems and run specific to District educational and exercising programs.

Commendations

VA School Letter 1 | VA School Letter 2 | NC School Letter

Pro bono work

Managing risks to young people is the focus of RSM’s Corporate Social Responsibility program and something we are passionate about. As well as undertaking much of our work for schools and colleges at discounted rates, RSM has provided a wide range of work pro bono, including:

• Carrying out a risk assessment on the facility and operations of the Village Learning Center (Kingwood TX) – an educational setting for children and young adults with developmental disabilities.
• Training for teachers in Luray VA on active shooter preparedness and response.
• Developing eLearning on active shooter and crisis response and also for bus drivers on their role in keeping young people safe, for the schools authorities of Virginia, District of Columbia and North Carolina that continues to be extensively used and in many cases forms a mandatory training for K12 staff.

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