Remember when . . . school safety was about not running in the halls, people smiled at people they didn't know, we looked forward to dances, and the campus felt safe 24/7?

These seven keys can guide both educators and community members in taking prudent and effective action to make schools safer.

1. School-Community Partnership
2. School Safety Team
3. Students as Safe School Ambassadors
4. Tolerance and Diversity Activities
5. Opportunities for the Least Engaged Youth
6. Teacher and Staff Training
7. Parent Involvement

Community Matters provides training, facilitates meetings, conducts presentations, and offers guidance as needed.

Example: Your Seven Keys Training Training Goal: Use the seven keys to strengthen the preventive part of a school safety plan, ensuring that the crisis response part never gets used. Description: Equips participants to use these seven keys to assess their current school safety efforts. Participants will draw from national best practices to develop recommendations and strategies for working with school staff, students, parents, and community members to strengthen their school safety plans. Hosted by: A county office of education... for school district, government, and agency representatives A school district... for district and school site personnel A school site for... teachers, support staff, parents, and community partners Time: One day Cost: $1500 plus travel *NOTE: For California schools, this training is adjusted to help you comply with the requirements of SB 187 and SB 334. It will help you write and refine your overarching annual school goal, and develop effective strategies for addressing the Five Components of Safe Schools as required by the California Department of Education.

Key 1: School-Community Partnership
School violence is not a problem of schools alone. Successfully meeting the developmental needs of youth requires a comprehensive, community-wide effort best coordinated by a school-community partnership that includes law enforcement, faith groups, businesses, government, seniors, community-based and youth-serving organizations, along with students, teachers, administrators and parents.

Potential Actions:

• Convene the key stakeholders
• Articulate a common vision
• Explore how each constituent group can work toward that vision in a coordinated way
• Make and carry out specific action plans
• Report successes and problems
• Meet on a regular basis to provide ongoing training and support

The Challenge: Not another committee! Not another meeting!

Tip: Having expert facilitation of initial partnership meetings can insure that they're productive, and that participants' enthusiasm and commitment grow as they see their actions produce results.

For Help: With our years of experience starting and sustaining partnerships, we can provide the skills training, facilitation & strategic planning, and technical assistance that will allow your partnership to function smoothly and make a positive impact.

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Key 2: School Safety Team
Since students are the primary victims and perpetrators of school violence, they hold a critical key to the success of whatever solutions are developed. Comprised of students, staff, teachers, administrators, school resource officers, and parents, the School Safety Team meets regularly to monitor school climate. The Team provides a forum in which all stakeholders can voice their concerns, and can work with key decision-makers to implement specific actions that promote safety and prevent violence in the school.

Potential Actions: Convene stakeholders to form School Safety Team; provide training and other support so the Team can function effectively.

The Challenge: Sustaining youth and adult involvement in the absence of a crisis.

Tip: Focus on school safety rather than violence prevention. Take actions that lead to quick successes, and have high visibility activities/results several times during the school year.

For Help: With our background in team development and youth-adult partnerships, we can provide the skills training, facilitation & strategic planning, and technical assistance that will allow the Team to start off on the right foot, function smoothly, and make school safer for everyone.

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Key 3: Safe School Ambassadors
Every school needs an organized team of students � the diverse opinion leaders of its diverse groups and cliques � who are committed to notice hotspots and trained to cool them off. Students who have the observation skills to notice the exclusion, teasing, bullying, harassment and other forms of mistreatment that often go unnoticed by adults. Students with the communication and intervention skills to work with their peers to prevent and stop acts of mistreatment in the moment, as they unfold.

Potential Actions: Create a team of Safe School Ambassadors on your campus.

The Challenge: Gaining administration and faculty support for the program.

Tip: Demonstrate the program's benefits in terms meaningful to key decision-makers.

For Help: We provide the training and technical assistance to help start a Safe School Ambassadors program.

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Key 4: Tolerance & Diversity Activities
Decreasing the tension between the cliques and interest groups on a campus requires that tolerance and respect be an integral part of the school culture. By infusing the entire school with ongoing activities that promote dialogue, understanding, tolerance and respect for differences, the school climate can be improved.

Potential Actions:

• Initiate guided class discussions led by specially trained students, guest speakers, forums, lock-ins, trainings and other experiences
• Recognize youth and adults who have made positive contributions to school climate
• Bring in community members of different backgrounds to tell their stories

The Challenge: integrate these activities across subject areas and make them popular school traditions.

Tip: Involve students and community members in the planning and implementation.

For Help: We can work with you to map out a year-long plan of meaningful activities. We can locate, provide, and facilitate such activities, and can train students and staff to facilitate them as well.

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Key 5: Opportunities for the Least Engaged Youth
Athletics, academics, and traditional activities do not meet the developmental needs of all students. And in todays's schools, far too many students feel disengaged, left out and isolated. Research shows that those who lack a sense of belonging are at greater risk for dropping out, or acting out. Therefore, we must create new and diverse opportunities for these least engaged youth to reconnect with their school and community.

Potential Actions: initiate dialogue; create opportunities for these students to be mentors, to be tutors and teach a skill to others, to learn a skill and start a business, to serve those in need, to build a skateboard park or ropes course, to plan events and other needed activities.

The Challenge: Avoiding the perception that "they're doing this TO me, FOR me, AT me."

Tip: Use a peer approach to connect with these students, and don't try to "bring them in" -- seek to understand them through honest dialogue, and work with them in partnership to set and achieve common goals.

(Read more about engaging the least engaged youth.)

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Key 6: Teacher & Staff Training
Whether they are bus drivers or classroom teachers, attendance secretaries or librarians, every adult has opportunities to notice students who are disengaged, hurting, or otherwise in need, and then intervene. To utilize these opportunities, every member of the staff must have the skills to identify, reach out to and connect with those students, and when necessary, the ability to direct them to appropriate resources.

Potential actions: conduct in-service training to help staff better understand their role and better utilize full range of youth-adult relationships; focus would be on awareness & identification, communication skills, and referral to resources.

The Challenge: Not another in-service!

Tip: Involve staff in planning, and show how it will benefit them, in terms of student performance, motivation and discipline.

For Help: We provide custom-designed training to adminstrators, classified, and certificated staff, to help them identify potential hot spots, communicate effectively with hard-to-reach students, and refer them to resources.

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Key 7: Parent Involvement
Since parents significantly influence students' opinions, values and interaction skills, parent understanding and support is essential for any successful school safety plan. But Booster Nights and Open Houses usually draw only the familiar faces of the highly engaged parents, so schools must find other ways to connect with parents, especially those not actively involved in their children's education.

Potential Actions: initiate parent dialogue nights in homes to discuss safety, tolerance and other issues, co-hosted by a parent, student and a school-community partnership.

The Challenge: the many demands on parents' time

Tip: Start small; make the invitation personal(ly) and make the experience safe, friendly, relevant and productive.

For Help: We can help plan and design parent outreach activities, and conduct presentations to parent groups on relevant topics like the Developmental Assets Framework.

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These seven keys can unlock the door to a campus where all youth and adults feel welcomed, respected, understood, and safe. A campus where students and staff pursue educational excellence with passion and commitment.

Contact us for help today!