Leduc area partners expand collaborative approach to community safety
Black Gold School Division and its partners have formally renewed a partnership that brings key service providers together to collaboratively respond to risk of violence in our communities. The partnership has also expanded its structure to include protocols for responding to traumatic events, and to community suicide trends, if those were to occur.
Representatives from each partner were present to sign a renewed agreement on October 8 at the Leduc County Business and Entrepreneur Centre. Black Gold’s partners in the Leduc Area Violence Threat Risk Assessment (LAVTRA) include:
- Evergreen Catholic Separate School Division
- St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic School Division
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
- Children’s Services
- Recovery Alberta
- City of Beaumont
- Town of Calmar
- Town of Devon
- City of Leduc
- Leduc County
- Town of Thorsby
- Village of Warburg
- Center for Trauma Informed Practice
“We are grateful for the strength of this partnership and for its positive outcome of ensuring our schools and communities are safe places for students and families,” says Michael Borgfjord, Superintendent, Black Gold School Division. “Safety is always our first priority and that work is significantly more effective when it's delivered collaboratively.”
The Leduc and Area Violent Threat Risk Assessment (LAVTRA) protocol was originally signed in 2014 and was recommitted in 2022, enabling partners to work with each other in a more collaborative way. Violence Threat Risk Assessment (VTRA) brings schools, police, health, child and family services, and community partners together when there is concern that a child or youth may pose a risk to themselves or others. Rather than each organization holding one piece of the picture in isolation, trained partners share relevant information, within the limits of privacy legislation, to better understand what is happening, assess the level of risk and develop a coordinated plan for support and safety.
“That collaborative approach is central to VTRA,” says Norm Dargis, Associate Superintendent of Student Services, Black Gold School Division. “A behaviour or piece of information that may seem insignificant to one organization can become important when it is considered alongside information held by another. By communicating across traditional organizational boundaries, partners can see a fuller picture and connect children, youth and families with the right supports earlier.”
The renewed agreement adds two coordinated community responses alongside VTRA: Traumatic Event Systems, which provides a framework for partner agencies to work together following a significant traumatic event affecting a school or broader community, and Community Suicide Prevention, which provides a coordinated response when concerns emerge about a pattern or cluster of suicides in a community. Both approaches are intended to help partners share relevant information, identify emerging needs or trends, and coordinate supports required for prevention, response and recovery.
Black Gold provides families “Fair Notice” about what information can be shared, and when it would be shared, on its website. More information: https://www.blackgold.ca/Assessment-Of-Risk-To-Others-black-gold-school-division