More than two dozen groups sign threat assessment protocol in Sudbury

A total of 26 organizations signed the fourth edition of the Community Threat Assessment Protocol in Sudbury on Tuesday.

Essentially, the protocol allows organizations to work together on violence prevention, threat management and safety planning by sharing information, advice and support that helps reduce risks.

"Primarily it started off being our young people, but now it is for any individual within the community where if someone has a shift in their baseline and we observe it, we try to figure out what’s going on so we check in," said Anna Barsanti, violence threat risk assessment community coordinator.

Originally, the assessment was created to prevent and respond to scenarios such as a school shooting, but has turned into much more.

Kevin Cameron, executive director of the North American Center for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response, was in Sudbury recently training people on what to do if something happens.

"Just looking at a broader perspective of not how trauma can just impact an individual or a family, but how it might impact the entire community sometimes and how we need to come together," Cameron said.

Since the onset of the pandemic, he said things have gotten worse, especially in school settings. In some instances, threat-related cases have increased by as much as 300 per cent in the last two years.

Barsanti said the assessment protocol has been used in the city since 2011 and while she doesn’t have a concrete number on how many violent incidents were stopped, she said she knows its working.