John Vandenburgh is a Youth Development consultant who brings a dynamic and innovative approach to ensuring safe school environments.  John has dedicated his career to providing youth with opportunities to participate and succeed in school and community settings.  John provides a system, which establishes the framework for implementing youth development components.

Success has shown the Peer Leaders Uniting Students (PLUS) Program, which he authored in 1999, is a groundbreaking approach to youth development systems.  The PLUS Program represents a modern approach to addressing school safety, violence prevention and youth development.   In 2008, as a result of the need to keep young children safe online, he created the Internet safety software called “CyberBully Alert.”  His latest work has gained international attention as an innovative strategy for addressing online safety and cyberbullying. 

John Vandenburgh created the Peer Leaders Uniting Students - PLUS Program, as a new approach for schools to utilize Youth Development components in the establishment of a safe school environment. The PLUS Program is a tool to address the racism, gangs and violence that go on in school communities. One of the objectives of the program is to develop a positive sense of belonging and group identity for individuals within a school setting. The identity to the group is invested in a purpose to implement positive actions that stimulate and build communication, connections, and community throughout a campus.

One of the many goals of John's presentations is for participants to develop a strong understanding of the impact group identity has on individual adolescent behavior, particularly with gangs, violence, and bullying. Educators must understand the importance of developing programs that foster relationships among youth and developing a sense of belonging for youth to a group. Our youth are simply growing up in a violent culture that invests itself in a code of silence. As educators we must counter this and develop a culture of communication, where students feel connected to one another and responsible for the outcomes of their campus culture.

John Vandenburgh began his career as a high school teacher in Southern California. John recognized that the largest issues he encountered in education and in hi s years of traveling the world came from miscommunication.  In an effort to alleviate the miscommunication on his campus, he began pulling students from different backgrounds and interests together to discuss the similarities in each other.  What began in his high school classroom has transformed into a replicable, vibrant program which schools are implementing across the country, and has gained international interest.

In 2002 John was honored as the California League of High Schools Educators of the Year, Region IX.  His career transitioned into a focus on violence prevention and youth development services in schools when he became a Safe Schools Administrator for Murrieta Valley Unified School District in Murrieta, California.  He has served on the California Department of Education’s Gang Task Force where he assisted in developing the Getting Results Update on Gang Violence for schools in the state of California.  In 2007 he received the “Ananda Guruge” Lifetime Commitment Award, presented by Stop the Violence, Increase the Peace Foundation based in Los Angeles, California.  John is an active member of several professional organizations,including California School Resource Officers Association (CSROA), The Southern California Regional Violence Prevention Coalition and the Think First for Kids Foundation. 

John earned a MA in Education from Azusa Pacific University and a BA degree in Kinesiology from California State San Bernardino.

Recent Speaking Engagements
Search Institute – Healthy Communities * Healthy Youth - Minneapolis, MN
EduAlliance Ready To Learn Annual Conference – Hollywood, CA
Inland Empire Violence Prevention Conference – Riverside, CA
National At-Risk Youth Annual Conference– Savannah, GA
California School Resource Officers Association Annual Conference - San Diego, CA
California Gang Summit – Attorney General’s Office - Riverside, CA
Small School District Association - Sacramento, CA
Office of Homeland Security - Palm Springs, CA

Consulting References (Contact Information on Request)
San Diego County Office of Education
Riverside County Board of Supervisors
Stop the Violence, Increase the Peace Foundation
Escondido Unified School District
Alvord Unified School District
Mission Hills High School – San Marcos, CA
Marcos De Niza High School, Phoenix, AZ