Safe Schools Coalition Programs
Educational Resources including:
- A 900+ page website utilized by 346,000 people in 122 countries and all 50 states. It provides resources for, students, educators and parents including courseware, studies, reference material, legal and policy resources, and an array of links to diverse resources. Our website has an average of over 30,000 visitors per month.
- A series of e-newsletters that provide the latest information on events, seasonal curriculum suggestions and advocacy opportunities with an e-list of over 800. The e-list and website are especially valuable to those in rural areas where schools are often more hostile and less safe.
- A speakers’ bureau for training educators, university students and youth. Trainings are provided on a sliding scale basis, no agency is denied training due to a lack of funds.
Intervention and Advocacy
- Annually, we intervene on behalf of forty to fifty students and families who are experiencing harassment, violence or discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
- We hold legislators, school boards and administrators accountable for making schools safe and free of bias-based bullying and violence.
Advisory Services
- Conduct and disseminate research studies
- Provide technical assistance, advice and support to researchers, policy-makers, educators and activists.
- Serve on the WA State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Commission on Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Safe Schools Coalition recently restructured our leadership team. Our new leadership team is larger and more robust. The team represents both broad and deep areas of expertise. As in all areas, this diversity makes us stronger and better prepared to continue our mission.
Our Intervention Team is now led by Dr. Will Gibson, Ph.D. who specializes in family challenges, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Recent team successes have included working with schools and parents to protect children from being bullied because of their gender presentation, family environment, and perceived sexual orientation.
While we have an incredible team of volunteers in place, our current need is to build a stronger infrastructure to support their efforts. An investment in Safe Schools Coalition will help build our intervention team, expand our outreach and training and allow us to grow and continually improve our website.
Our web site is considered the most useful in the world for professionals, students and families trying to keep students safe from bias-based harassment, with over 900 pages of valuable resources. Keeping the website current and dynamic is among our highest priorities. It also requires significant time and money.
We maintain a Speakers’ Bureau that has provided skill-based training for about 1,300 educators each year (teachers, administrators and other professional and paraprofessional staff), often at no charge and educated 3,000+ students. A gift of $200 allows us to provide an hour of professional training managed by a staff person.