The Prevention Practitioners Network (PPN) is a national network of over 1,600 interdisciplinary professionals dedicated to using public health approaches to prevent hate-fueled violence. PPN welcomes all prevention professionals, including those focused on raising awareness, bolstering youth resilience, training bystanders, and assessing and intervening with individuals who may be at risk of violence.
Since March 2025, the PPN has added 215 new members to its network and 40 directory profiles to the Reach Out Resource Hub. The Network has also updated eight practice guides, which multidisciplinary teams across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have used as they stand up to prevent targeted violence and terrorism. It also published a first-of-its-kind ethics framework for preventing targeted violence that “provides an ethical grounding in the targeted violence prevention space so that professions across multiple disciplines share a common language,” according to Dr. James Marley, chair of the PPN Ethics Committee and Associate Professor at Loyola University’s School of Social Work.
What We Do
- Conduct capacity-building workshops on topics such as building multidisciplinary teams, information sharing, and behavioral assessment and management
- Publish free practice guides for interdisciplinary professionals
- Host the Reach Out Resource Hub, a national directory of prevention resources and mental and behavioral health clinicians willing to accept referrals
- Raise public awareness through national bystander campaigns
- Facilitate case consultations for clinicians with complex cases
- Share the latest research
Upcoming Training
Mental Health and Targeted Violence 101: Preventing School Shootings and Other Mass Casualty Events
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
1:00-3:00 PM ET/10:00am-12:00pm PT
APA’s Continuing Education Learning Platform
This program will increase awareness and understanding of targeted violence in North America. Content includes definitions, trends, and case examples to enhance the capacity of professionals to understand risk and protective factors, recognize behavioral warning signs, and identify available resources. It will include a review of relevant professional standards, ethics, and laws relevant to decision-making in challenging cases. Resources and opportunities for further training will be shared so participants will know what is available and how to provide better resources and interventions for potential cases of targeted violence. The program is intended for mental health practitioners working in a variety of settings to increase competence and confidence in targeted violence-focused prevention and intervention efforts.
Learn more and register today.
Targeted Violence & Terrorism: Strengths, needs, & risks Assessment & Management tool (T-SAM)
Thursday, December 4, 2025
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM EDT
Virtual training over Zoom
Offered in partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital, this in-person training provides clinicians with the first risk assessment and management tool for targeted violence that can be used by mental health professionals working in generalist settings. Harm toward others is a known risk, yet mental health professionals working outside of forensic settings have few if any tools they can use to assess and manage violence risk to inform risk assessment and treatment planning. The Targeted Violence and Terrorism Strengths, needs, and risks: Assessment & Management tool (T-SAM) offers mental health professionals a collaborative, client-centered approach to assessment and management of risk for both adults and children. The development of the T-SAM was informed by an evidence-based, suicide-focused therapeutic framework known as the Collaborative Assessment & Management of Suicidality (CAMS).
Prevention in Practice Learning Community
In partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital, the PPLC serves as a community of licensed mental and behavioral health providers who want to learn from one another through case studies, discussion, and consultation.
The PPLC aims to provide clinical practitioners with strategies for working with adolescents and adults at risk for violence due to grievances and/or beliefs. This may include individuals in the early stages of contemplating or justifying violence; individuals who are more seriously engaged with violent groups or ideologies; or individuals who have already been criminally charged for threatening or committing an act of violence. We welcome practitioners from a range of practice settings and particularly encourage practitioners with experience in working with high-risk patients.
Since March 2024, the PPLC has conducted 20 case consultation calls and knowledge-sharing webinars and has welcomed 121 licensed practitioners as participants.
If you are a clinically licensed practitioner and would like to join the PPLC, please email Neil Saul at nsaul@eradicatehatesummit.org.
Join Us
Please join the Prevention Practitioners Network to stay updated on our upcoming trainings and workshops, receive the latest research publications on targeted violence prevention, and collaborate with practitioners across the United States.
Additionally, if you’re a professional working directly or indirectly to promote community safety, mental health and wellness, or crisis support, we welcome you to join our Reach Out Resource Hub. The Resource Hub includes nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies, licensed mental health providers, social workers, educators, law enforcement officers and intervention teams, academics, and anyone else working in the community or providing relevant services to those who may know someone at risk of committing an act of hate-fueled violence or may themselves be at risk.
Mental Health and Targeted Violence 101: Preventing School Shootings and Other Mass Casualty Events
