Violence & Suicide Prevention

The Public Policy Center is working to prevent acts of targeted violence and decrease the suicide rate in Nebraska with various initiatives on targeted violence prevention, suicide prevention, threat assessment, and school safety. Center staff facilitate the development of threat assessment capabilities to enhance law enforcement, educational, and behavioral health professionals’ abilities to address various aspects of targeted violence (e.g., stalking, school violence, extremist violence).

PPC researchers work in consultation with Nebraska agencies and University partners (often with federal funding support) to develop and assess suicide detection and prevention efforts.

Recent projects include: Nebraska Youth Suicide Prevention GLS Project, UNL Campus Suicide Prevention, Violence Risk Assessment, and Threat Assessment.

Nebraska Youth Suicide Prevention

As part of a five-year GLS Suicide Prevention Grant, PPC researchers are working with Region V Systems and the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) to reduce rates of youth suicide by promoting prevention and postvention policies. There is a special emphasis on southeast Nebraska’s 16 county area addressing documented public health data recording a high suicide rate. Implementing postvention policies based on standard guidelines and routine evidence-based suicide screening in schools is the target for the NDE working through the Educational Service Units across the state. PPC staff work with the suicide prevention coalition of Lancaster County and the State Suicide Prevention Coalition sponsoring activities to promote messages regarding suicide prevention. 

More information and resources can be found on the Nebraska Youth Suicide Prevention website.

Targeted Violence Prevention and Research

NUPPC is engaged in several projects exploring targeted violence in different contexts. For example, NUPPC is partnering with several entities to implement Stop School Violence Act Grants (Safe2Help Threat Assessment Teams website), exploring the role of public health in preventing targeted violence (PTV website), and engaging in other types of targeted violence research (UNL-Targeted Violence Research website).

Learn more about NUPPC’s efforts in behavioral threat assessment and targeted violence on the (Threat Assessment and Targeted Violence website

Services

Conference & Training Facilitation

For many of our active projects, our staff plan and execute conferences, workshops, and seminars of all sizes, virtual and in-person. This includes event management, technology recommendations, graphic design, communications, and accommodations for in-person and remote-hosted events. Additionally, staff are experienced in managing all logistics for virtual and in-person events. The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center is an approved continuing education sponsor through the American Psychological Association (APA). This means we can facilitate psychologists’ access to continuing education that meets APA standards.

Grant Development & Management

We pursue and manage funding opportunities to support policy-related initiatives. Center researchers garner both public and private funding at the local, state, and national levels for applied and translational research grants. We work closely with partners to identify funding opportunities, develop grant and contract proposal narratives, create budgets and timelines, execute agreements, manage grant funds in accordance with funder requirements, and submit required fiscal and programmatic reporting.

Program Design and Evaluation

Center research staff routinely conduct program evaluations in partnership with stakeholders to define questions, plan activities, interpret results, and use findings to recommend and implement changes. We use quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods techniques appropriate to the project. Our programmatic capabilities include survey design, interviews, focus groups, mapping geographic data, overall data analysis, and report preparation.

Project Management, Strategic Planning & Consulting

Our researchers bring high-level management expertise to projects for all kinds of organizations. We bring research-based insights to executive decision-making, develop organizational structures to achieve desired results; assist with communication planning, agenda setting and creating necessary informational materials; implement research plans; and guide open communication among stakeholders. Our researchers are trained in facilitation and regularly lead stakeholders through strategic planning, problem definition, and consensus-building, as well as discovering organizational priorities, setting goals, and creating action plans.

Scholarly Research

Our approach is rooted in academic-oriented inquiry and investigation. We provide basic research products for partners such as high-quality and easy-to-understand literature reviews, white papers, and briefing papers. Our researchers come from diverse disciplines, including: Business, Economics, Family and Consumer Sciences, Law, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. 

Stakeholder Engagement & Outreach

We work with stakeholders to design and execute customized frameworks. This includes determining the breadth, length, location, and timing of facilitated events; identifying participants; collecting data from participants throughout the planning or engagement process; creating opportunities for feedback and debriefing; and producing draft and final products based on results. In addition, many of our staff consult with outside organizations and conduct professional presentations on a variety of issues.