Melissa Institute For Violence Prevention & Treatment Inc

Programs: Bullying education series - bullying education prevention education was provided for elementary, middle and high school students from various schools, after-school care and summer camp programs throughout miami-dade county. The program focuses on exploring the effects and dynamics of bullying behavior, role of bystanders, promoting bystander to upstander behavior, ways to reduce the incidence and prevalence and resources and strategies to intervene when bullying behavior occurs.

may conference - the institute's 21st annual conference was held at the donna e. Shalala student center on the university of miami campus in coral gables, fl. The title of the conference was "treatment of victims of interpersonal violence: a life span approach. " donald meichenbaum, ph. D. , research director, the melissa institute, professor emeritus, university of waterloo, ontario, canada, served as course director. Faculty included john briere, ph. D. , associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at the keck school of medicine, university of southern california, and co-director of the child and adolescent trauma program; christine courtois, ph. D. , abpp, who specializes in the treatment of trauma, particularly for adults experiencing the effects of childhood incest and other forms of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. She has received international recognition for treatment approaches for complex posttraumatic and dissociative conditions and has co-authored several books. The conference brought together these three international experts in the field of psychology to discuss risk assessment and treatment of victims of interpersonal violence and their family members. The presenters offered a life span developmental perspective and highlighted ways to bolster resilience. Since 1997, the melissa institute has presented an annual conference for teachers, school counselors, social workers, therapists, law enforcement personnel and others to provide evidence-based information on ways to prevent and treat violence. More than 150 professionals attended this conference.

act raising safe kids - two act raising safe kids facilitator training programs and a refresher course for previously trained individuals took place during the past year. The act facilitator training included attendees from miami-dade county public schools counselors, success coaches and intervention specialists and staff from the office of early childhood programs - head start and early head start. The institute has a certified national act coordinator/master trainer.