UB Alberti Center Newsletter

News & Updates

March 2024 | Volume 13: Issue 1

Upcoming Events

Check out all upcoming events hosted by both the UB Alberti Center and Graduate School of Education!

Out and About in the Community & Beyond

The Alberti Center team offers in-person, virtual, and hybrid events upon request. These are just some of the events we have participated in or provided over the past few months:

December

Norms and Bystander Intervention Training (NABIT!) Training of Trainers at Measurement, Inc. - Albany, NY

January

Mental Health Crisis Interventions: Responding to an Acute Traumatic Stressor in Schools presented at Ken-Ton School District - Kenmore, NY

February

Social Media and Digital Technology: Information and Tools for Practitioners presented at the National Association of School Psychologists Annual Conference - New Orleans, LA

Bullying as a form of trauma. Didactic for Western New York Children's Psychiatric Center psychology interns - West Seneca, NY

NYSED Dignity for All Students Act Training

Registration dates are now available through June, 2024, for the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) training workshop for teacher certification in New York State. The course is offered fully online in two parts. Part One is asynchronous, while Part Two is synchronous with "live" interactive instruction via Zoom. Here is some feedback from recent participants:

I feel a sense of clarity. I felt that through the training, I gained a better understanding of how to go about situations involving bullying.

I thought this course was very helpful and everyone should have to take this even if you aren't directly dealing with children.

Very well done. I am grateful to have more resources for my current educational position and all future positions.

Link to DASA training workshop information.

2023-24 Alberti Center Colloquium Series

On February 28, Hannah Rapp, PhD, postdoctoral associate at the Alberti Center, presented her research on An Exploratory Mixed Methods Study Considering Parents of Adolescents with Developmental Disabilities as Secondary Victims of Bullying Abuse. Slides and a recording of the presentation are now available on our website.

The 2023-2024 Alberti Center Colloquium Series will wrap up with a presentation by Christopher T. H. Liang, PhD, professor of counseling psychology at Lehigh University. Dr. Liang will be presenting his research on Race-Centered Trauma-Responsive Schools Approach: Pathway to Racial Healing. This off-campus event, co-sponsored by the UB School of Social Work and the Erie County Law Enforcement Foundation, will be held on Tuesday, April 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at BestSelf Behavioral Health (768 Delaware Ave., Buffalo) and online via Zoom. Lunch will be served to in-person attendees. Registration is still open on our website!

Descriptive event flyer with presentation title, presenter, location, time, date, and registration link.

Brie Kishel, program & operations manager poses for a photo with self advocates and employees from People Inc.

Spread the Word Day

The 15th Anniversary of Spread the Word, a global campaign led by the Special Olympics to promote inclusion and celebrate diversity, took place on March 6th. Brie Kishel, program & operations manager, participates with the Spread the Word - Western New York (WNY) chapter and helped to organize the event this year which was held at the Tri-Main Center on Main Street in Buffalo. The event brought together over a dozen human service and non-profit organizations to share resources and educate attendees about various efforts to create a more inclusive WNY community.

Attendees were given the opportunity to sign a pledge to promote inclusion throughout the year and an open mic session provided an opportunity to speak about "what inclusion means to you."

Image of title screen for presentation "Understanding DASA (Dignity for All Students Act."

Video Resource Spotlight

New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) seeks to provide the State’s public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying. The Alberti Center is a certified provider of this training which is mandated by the New York State Education Department.

In recognition of National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, we are sharing this video on Understanding DASA (Dignity for All Students Act) presented by the Northern Regional Center for Independent Living (NRCIL). This presentation focuses on DASA and how it pertains to students with disabilities.

You can find this, and other resources on our YouTube channel.

Awards & Recognitions

Brie Kishel, program & operations manager at the Alberti Center, has accepted the position of Vice President for BAND Against Bullying. The Alberti Center has participated in this annual event since it was founded over ten years ago by Mike Bryant and Jess Sanna, employees at M&T Bank. Brie says "I am so honored to accept this position and am ready to step up and make every effort to uphold the outstanding program that Mike and Jess have created." She is looking forward to planning another fabulous event in 2025! Learn more about the event on the BAND website.

The Alberti Center is excited to welcome our first Postdoctoral Associate, Hannah Rapp, PhD, who will spend the next two years assisting the center with bullying prevention research efforts. Dr. Rapp recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology. Learn more about her on our website.

Image of adolescent kneeling on the ground while three peers stand over her in an aggressive manner.

Homeland security grant supports bystander intervention training

A recent article written by Vicky Santos and published in the UB Graduate School of Education's E-Newsletter highlights a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, obtained by Drs. Amanda Nickerson, director and principal investigator, and Stephanie Fredrick, associate director and co-investigator. The grant will assist the Alberti Center in continuing to build youth resiliency and implement bystander intervention training. “This current grant is an extension of our work that has tested NAB IT!, where we found that students participating in the bystander-intervention training showed increased knowledge about bullying and sexual harassment, confidence in intervening and acceptance of responsibility, knowing what to do, and acting to intervene (including direct intervention, providing support and reporting to an adult). Building upon the work we’ve done, we’ll be able to implement NAB IT! in four different schools that serve more diverse populations in higher-need communities” Nickerson explains. Read the entirety of the article here.

20th Annual Safe Schools Initiative Seminar

The Alberti Center co-sponsored the 20th Annual Safe Schools Initiative Seminar, Working Together to Keep our Schools Safe with New Tools and Important Lessons Learned from Uvalde, which was held on March 20 at the UB Center for the Arts.

The first half of the seminar was presented by the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC). The NTAC team discussed the CISA-USSS Bystander Reporting Toolkit and how it can be used to inform safety planning for K-12 schools.

The second half of the seminar was presented by Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Her presentation summarized and provided key takeaways from the hundreds of observations and recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Justice and others that can help communities, including schools and first responder agencies, avoid these same failures if faced with a similar situation.

Resources from this seminar are available on the Erie County Law Enforcement Foundation website.

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