Ingham County students benefit from MSU violence prevention program. Lincoln Park students are next.

Ingham County students benefit from MSU violence prevention program. Lincoln Park students are next.

Highlights:

• Prevent 2 Protect is a first-of-its-kind program to help keep K-12 students safe from targeted violence through teamwork by experts in mental health, law enforcement and education.

• Thisis a program built on a foundation of child development, psychiatry, threat assessment and targeted violence research that redirects students who are risk of committing targeted violence and helps them develop a sense of belonging in their communities.

• The Prevent 2 Protect assessment, consultation and training hub was created in 2022 and began serving students in 2023 in Calhoun, Lake, Oceana and Mason counties. Most recently, Ingham County Schools joined that list and Lincoln Park Public Schools in Wayne County are next.

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The goal of preventive medicine is to find and treat problems before they become major health issues. Prevent 2 Protect — an MSU initiative that recently began supporting the community through schools in Ingham County and will soon expand to Wayne County — uses a similar approach with high-risk students to prevent acts of targeted violence.

Prevent 2 Protect is a groundbreaking program that helps assess and manage students who have been identified as high-risk through behavioral threat assessment. Prevent 2 Protect aims to connect high-risk students to their community and enable them to develop a sense of belonging.

Since Prevent 2 Protect was launched in 2022, referrals for more than 55 students have been received and more than 20 have been enrolled in the program.

“Our students are doing exceedingly well,” said Alyse Folino Ley, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, Prevent 2 Protect director and a professor in the MSU colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and Human Medicine. “Their individual successes include steps like reenrolling in school, joining school activities, getting back on the path to graduation and contributing in a positive way to their community. They are getting the services they need.” 

About Prevent 2 Protect

Drawing on the expertise of mental health providers, law enforcement officials and educators, Prevent 2 Protect provides a research-to-practice hub that is based in the MSU Department of Psychiatry. The hub team is comprised of psychiatrists, resident physicians, law enforcement professionals, social workers and educators and is supported by national experts in psychiatry, forensics, psychology, law enforcement, targeted violence and education.

Regional teams, consisting of a mentor and case manager, are currently in place in Calhoun County, West Shore ESD and Ingham County district schools. Lincoln Park Public Schools in Wayne County was onboarded to Prevent 2 Protect in January 2025, and the program will launch in early March.

When educators in participating regional schools identify concerning student behavior that could lead to violence, a behavioral threat assessment is completed by the school and then a referral is made to Prevent 2 Protect. Students determined to be at moderate to high risk of committing an act of targeted violence are eligible for the program. These high-risk youth undergo a holistic assessment, and the multidisciplinary hub team creates an individualized care plan for the adolescent and their family.

“You can’t change a complex problem with a simple solution,” Folino Ley said. “One of the strengths of Prevent 2 Protect is that we identify the needs of a student — and perhaps of their family — and close the gaps that exist for them.

“Our services don’t stop at assessment,” she said. “We help kids and their families navigate systems and get the specific help they need. We also monitor the kids’ progress and provide one-on-one mentoring.”

In Ingham County

Prevent 2 Protect continues to expand its services in Ingham County and currently serves East Lansing Public Schools, Holt Public Schools, Mason Public Schools, Okemos Public Schools and Williamston Community Schools.

“Through this program, we provide a multifaceted approach to ending targeted violence among adolescents,” said Mary Gebara, Prevent 2 Protect case manager for Ingham County schools. Gebara is a child life specialist and is certified in Mental Health First Aid and trained in behavioral threat assessment.

“We provide support and access to resources for our participants that they may not have had previously,” Gebara added. “We help them feel connected to their communities and find ways for them to engage positively in healthy and constructive activities. Most importantly, we help them feel valuable.”

Jay Greene, the Ingham County Prevent 2 Protect mentor, has spent his 24-year career working with youth who are on probation, in detention centers and residential facilities. Mentors are considered one of most important contributors to the program, Folino Ley explained. They are students’ constant support. As a former MSU football player who earned his degree in psychology, Greene has experiences and skills that help him connect with youth.

“This isn’t work,” Greene said. “What I do is who I am. I like mentoring students and helping them get to where they want to be. Sometimes I see myself in them and I’m thankful to the people who helped me get to the point where I am. This is paying it forward in a sense.”

In Lincoln Park

More than 5,000 students attend Lincoln Park Public Schools. In addition, 23 districts send students to Lincoln Park’s day treatment program for those with emotional impairments; 17 districts send students to the program for those who have moderate to severe autism. It is also a school of choice district.

“We touch quite a bit of Wayne County and many of the downriver districts,” said Nicole Chubb, executive director of special education for Lincoln Park Public Schools. “And we have many different programs that focus on the social and emotional well-being of our students embedded across the district. As an intensive wraparound model, Prevent 2 Protect will add another layer of support to help our students and their families. We are so excited to partner with them.”

Folino Ley and members of her team have conducted professional development with Lincoln Park administrators, district leadership, behavior specialists, school resource officers and social workers. Similar training will be held soon for additional staff, including more social workers, law enforcement and mental health staff, Chubb said.

“The Prevent 2 Protect program provides opportunities to help children strengthen positive relationships,” said Martine Highet, regional case manager in Lincoln Park who has also served as a child and adolescent forensic interviewer, victim advocate and mental health first responder.

“Through interdisciplinary collaboration, we help identify areas for intervention and assistance in removing barriers for the children and their families. As a regional case manager, I see the impact this program has on its participants. The children develop skills that enable them to build bridges and foster connections.”

Prevent 2 Protect is a five-year pilot program funded by the Michigan Department of Education. A $15 million grant supports the program’s hub team at MSU and five intensive support teams. The team also works with the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health for programmatic evaluation.

“The program’s early results are promising,” Folino Ley said. “Prevent 2 Protect serves as a model for the management of high-risk adolescents that could eventually be employed to protect students throughout the state and country.”

Read more from Alyse Folino Ley on MSUToday. 

Read more about Prevent 2 Protect.

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