Derek Olivier Research Institute – Arkansas Baptist College

D.O.R.I. MISSION STATEMENT:

The Derek Olivier Research Institute’s (DORI) for the Prevention of Violence proposes to collect, analyze, and track data trends on violence, in an effort to recommend best practices and potential solutions for the prevention of violent behaviors detrimental to community safety.

IMPACT

The impact of DORI program processes will have a substantial effect on the long-term identity of Arkansas Baptist College while maintaining our commitment to teaching excellence. Implementation of strategies are predicted to enhance student participation in research, and scholarly activities across the institution, thus raising the quality of undergraduate education overall. Additionally, these activities will foster remedies to reduce violence (homicides). The short, mid and long-term DORI goals are to impact homicides, and violence rates to their lowest rates since 1950.

ABOUT DEREK OLIVIER:

Derek Joseph Olivier was an Arkansas Baptist Football player whose life was cut short by gunfire in September 2012. Derek was shot and killed not far from the Arkansas Baptist College campus while he was helping a friend change a tire. To date, no arrests have been made. Derek is survived by his father Joseph, mother, Alma Marie; sister, Felicia; brother, Antoine; and a host of relatives and friends in his hometown Iberia, LA and around the country. Derek’s loved ones refuse to allow his death to be in vain by simply resulting in yet another casualty of black-on-black crime.

As such, the 13th President, Dr. Fitzgerald Hill (2006-2016) established the Derek Olivier Research Center for Black on Black Violence, under the auspice of the Urban Community Leadership Program, as a means to study and remedy the problems that plague urban communities.