Arkansas Tech University has received a national award recognizing its Jerry Cares program.
Amy Pennington, ATU dean of students (photographed, left) and Will Cooper, ATU assistant dean for student conduct (photographed, right), accepted the 2017 National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (NaBITA) Best Practices/Institutional Impact Award on behalf of the university.
The award was presented by Dr. Brian Van Brunt, NaBITA executive director (photographed, middle).
According to NaBITA, the award is intended to recognize a practice or program that can be modeled by other institutions as a best practice and has been shown to have significant evidence-based impact on the originating institution. These practices or programs can be those that are specific to the functioning of a behavioral intervention team or which serve to educate, provide interventions for or reduce risk among target populations.
Jerry Cares was created by the ATU Division of Student Services in fall 2014 to facilitate a safe and welcoming learning and working environment for members of the university community. Topics covered by Jerry Cares programming throughout the academic year and on the Jerry Cares website include alcohol and drug abuse prevention, sexual violence prevention and hazing prevention.
One aspect of Jerry Cares is the CARE Team, which is a multidisciplinary, proactive campus threat assessment and behavioral intervention team dedicated to improving campus safety through a coordinated, objective approach to prevention, identification, assessment, intervention and management of situations that may pose a threat to the safety and well-being of individuals and the university community.
The program is named for Jerry the Bulldog, campus ambassador at Arkansas Tech.