Eastern Kentucky University

The Eastern Kentucky University Violence Prevention Project (EKU-VPP) began its work with the Hamilton Fish Institute in 1999 with the implementation of a violence prevention program that served all students at the rural high school that received the intervention. EKU-VPP evaluated the program's effectiveness over a two-year period and found was that perpetration of violence at the control schools remained nearly constant, while perpetration at the intervention school was markedly reduced during the intervention phase.

In the 2002-2003 school year, the EKU-VPP undertook a project to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention that focused on improving school bus behavior using material from “Bus Discipline: A Positive Approach,” by Randall Sprick and Geoff Colvin. Again working with rural schools, school bus drivers were trained to manage discipline among the children on school buses. The goal of the project was to achieve a reduction in the school bus incident referrals and to generally improve the behavior of the students.

In the 2003-2004 school year, EKU-VPP teamed with the National Major Gang Task Force, and other local and national agencies, to study the impact of gangs on the educational process, as well as violence levels, in schools. The project will seek to identify and, where possible, replicate interventions that reflect best practices in eliminating gangs and their influence on schools.

Since joining the Hamilton Fish Institute as a research partner, the EKU-VPP has coordinated four live national satellite videoconferences based on the Institute's Comprehensive Framework and featuring school violence prevention work being done around the country by HFI Consortium members and other school safety professionals.

Project Management

Principal Investigator
Dr. Joy Renfro

Project Director
Becky B. Ritchey