About the IVDB

A Brief History of the IVDB

The IVDB was initially funded in 1994-95 with a $70,000 start-up investment by the University of Oregon under the aegis of Stead Upham, then Vice Provost for Research. As a designated Oregon University System Center of Excellence, the IVDB identifies the University of Oregon as the lead institution of the OUS campus network in the areas of violence prevention and school safety. In the past eight years, the IVDB has developed a strong statewide and national leadership presence. In 2002, the IVDB was named as the Oregon Center for School Safety (OCSS) by the Oregon Legislature. Since 1997, the IVDB has been a consortium member of the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence . The IVDB investigators' contributions to the field have garnered international recognition.

IVDB Activities

IVDB research and outreach activities include:

• Translating evidence-based, technical knowledge and information into consumer friendly forms that practitioners can use in applied contexts;
• Conducting original research on tools and interventions that make schools safer, healthier and violence free;
• Using social marketing and best practice dissemination procedures to promote adoption of evidence-based approaches and strategies that pass the bar as professional practices;
• Sharing our expertise through legislative testimony, outreach training, and technical assistance provided to federal and state legislative bodies, policy centers, school districts, and other public and private agencies serving at-risk children and youth; and,
• Training and coaching key implementation agents who serve as collaborative partners for our intervention programs located in school districts in Oregon and across the country.

Grants and Funding

The IVDB has been able to secure a diverse portfolio of competitively-awarded, externally-funded grants during its brief history. Currently, we have more than 20 grant-supported projects, ranging from relatively small ones of short duration to very large ones of much longer duration. Collectively, they represent more than $11 million in grants to the U of O across their total durations. To date, the IVBD has received competitively-awarded funding from the following agencies:

• The U.S. Office of Special Education Programs
• The National Institute of Mental Health
• The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Education Programs
• The U.S. Agency for Children, Youth and Families
• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• The U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• The U.S. Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• The California State Department of Education
• The Mississippi State Department of Education
• The National Institute of Child Health and Development
• The Nebraska State Department of Education
• The Texas State Department of Education
• The Oregon Governor's Juvenile Crime Prevention Commission
• The Oregon Commission on Children and Families
• The Deschutes County Commission on Children and Families
• The Small Business Administration Through its SBIR Program
• Lane County Council of Governments
• The UO Center for Women in Society
• Multiple Oregon school districts

Noted IVDB Publications

An impressive group of University of Oregon investigators, and researchers from other universities, continue to collaborate through the IVDB in producing research, refereed journal articles, position papers, book chapters and other materials that define best practices in preventing antisocial and violent behaviors in schools and communities. In the past three years, IVDB-affiliated faculty have produced three books addressing the topics of violence prevention, school safety, and making schools more effective in meeting the challenges posed by behaviorally at-risk and failing students. They include the following titles: (1) Making Schools Safer and Violence Free: Critical Issues, Solutions, and Recommended Practices , by Hill Walker and Michael Epstein, PRO-ED, Inc. (2001); (2) Safe School Design: A Handbook for Educational Leaders , by Tod Schneider, Hill Walker, and Jeffrey Sprague, ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, University of Oregon (2001); and (3) Interventions for Academic and Behavior Problems II: Preventive and Remedial Approaches , by Mark Shinn, Hill Walker, and Gary Stoner, National Association of School Psychologists (January, 2002). A fourth book on school safety by Jeffrey Sprague, Hill Walker, Vicki Nishioka and Stephen Smith is currently in press to Guilford Publications School Practitioner Series (edited by our COE colleague Ken Merrell) and will appear in early 2003.

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Updated: Thursday, May 25, 2006