Our Blog: Equipping & Empowering

Adding video cameras, a new access control system, and the 15-minute active shooter training video will surely be the best approach to building a comprehensive security program. We had an all-hands meeting complete with doughnuts and coffee!! All bases have been covered. Implementing this initiative will keep us clear of any liability issues in the event of an active attack taking place. Everyone will know what to do. Right????

Many schools nationwide lack a formal threat assessment protocol. The best way to prevent an active attack is to see the warning signs prior. Below we have given you eight steps to help in the process.

School violence is at an all-time high in this country, with many security experts predicting that these numbers will increase. The staggering reality is that many schools must catch up when providing their children with a comprehensive safety and security protocol. Get involved at your child's school by asking administrators how they keep your child safe.

Wash your hands, wear your mask, 6 feet apart, just a few phrases that are now ingrained in our heads. You don't even think about these things anymore, you just do them. Now let's imagine an industrial accident at your plant. An employee has their arm stuck in a machine and is bleeding profusely, or a car accident where your loved one has arterial bleeding coming from their shoulder. Time is not on your side, and you are sitting there trying to remember what you learned 2-3 years prior in your bleeding control breakout session of class.

You see, there is a reason why seasoned airline passengers sit down, buckle their seat belts, put their tray tables up and stow their items under the seat in front of them. Day after day, they hear the flight attendant say the same 3-minute speech, so it becomes muscle memory. Did you know the average human only hears about 20% of what someone says to them? You may be asking where we're going with this. Well, it's quite simple, it's the importance of refresher training.

Regular refresher training helps individuals remember important but seldom-used information. Many times refresher courses reveal knowledge gaps and training needs within the organization. It's like learning a foreign language. If you don't use it, you lose it. When we look at Active Shooter Events, we must remind ourselves of the time gap between the actual violence and medical personal arriving on the scene. Studies show that the average response time for EMS in these events could be much longer than the 3-5 minute window an individual has to bleed out.

Skills such as tourniquet application, wound packing, chest seals; where and when to use them is a skill that must always be refreshed. Our goal is to build muscle memory and provide refresher trainings that continually review and practice these skills.

There are two types of people in a crisis — those who act and those who do not.

At ProActive Response Group, we talk a lot about having survivor's mindset. It's an important part of our training because in order to survive a violent encounter, you must first have the will to survive.

In today's blog article we want to dive a little deeper into this idea of a survivor's mentality by uncovering the five characteristics that are true of a survivor.

Surviving an active shooter event doesn't have to be based on chance or luck. Survival can be trained, and with the right skills and proactive steps in your back pocket, you can be prepared for something as unpredictable as an active shooter event.

Let's discuss four key pieces of knowledge that really could save your life in an active shooter situation. 

PRESS RELEASE

Greenville, SC January 24, 2020 – ProActive Response Group, a Greenville-based business that provides Active Shooter Response Training to schools, companies, religious establishments, and industrial facilities across the U.S. has been approved as a SHRM Recertification Provider.

As a SHRM Recertification General Provider, ProActive Response Group can award SHRM Professional Development Credits (PDCs) to HR professionals who complete their Active Shooter Response Training. The training is valid for up to 4 credits for the SHRM-CP^® or SHRM-SCP^®.

It's amazing how quickly a story of a workplace violence incident will go in and out of the news. From the perspective of an outside party reading the news or tuning in, active shooter events seem to be forgotten almost as quickly as they happen.

The thing is, there's a lot of aftermath a company deals with that the news doesn't cover. In order for a business, corporation or other organization to recover from a traumatic workplace violence incident, there must be an intentional plan or procedure for dealing with the aftermath.

Let's look at the steps companies should be taking in order to properly handle the aftermath of an active shooter event.

A brick and mortar business wouldn't think of operating without fire insurance. And yet, did you know that a workplace shooting is more likely to happen than a fire? 

The fastest growing type of murder in the United States is workplace violence. Most people are unaware of this reality, which is why the idea of active shooter insurance is just catching on for businesses, schools, and other organizations.

Most people have taken some form of first aid class at some point in their lives. Additionally, many people take first aid courses regularly because their jobs require it, or simply because they want to keep their certification up to date.

First aid training is an important skill to have. It prepares you to take action in a variety of situations. If someone is choking on a piece of food, First Aid training prepares you to do the Heimlich maneuver. Or, if a person has a heart attack and stops breathing, you would utilize your First Aid training by doing CPR.

However, there are a different set of emergency circumstances that could require different training.