Safe2Tell Receives National Recognition

By Susan Payne, Safe2Tell

Earlier this year, Safe2Tell Founding Executive Director Susan Payne was invited to the White House to discuss lessons learned from incidences of violence and components of developing model plans to prevent future events. This critical work was initiated by President Barack Obama when he announced a plan to protect the nation’s children and communities by reducing gun violence, as a response to the Sandy Hook tragedy. In addition to calling for specific legislative action, the President announced that his administration is taking 23 executive actions to reduce gun violence, including an executive action to create model emergency management plans for schools, institutions of higher education and houses of worship, and to provide best practices for training students and staff to follow these plans. Safe2Tell was honored to be recognized nationally for its efforts in preventing violence in Colorado.

Unfortunately, Colorado is no stranger to violent tragedies, and Safe2Tell is often a resource used in recovery efforts when violent incidences happen across our nation. Since the Sandy Hook tragedy, Safe2Tell has been contacted by other states wanting information about the Safe2Tell model and school-safety efforts. Providing a response in hope and healing by assisting others in violence prevention efforts is where Safe2Tell is gaining a national reputation as a leader. Safe2Tell provides piece of mind, that with sound prevention models, violence can be prevented through effective methods of collecting information with an anonymous reporting mechanism in place.

Safe2Tell was founded in 2004 with a simple idea: give youth a voice, the guarantee of anonymity and safety, and education on eight key issues and early interventions, and they will provide the information needed to prevent violence. Prevention, along with education and awareness efforts, are making all the difference in early interventions with mental health concerns, suspicious and dangerous behaviors, and the broadcasting threats to self or others.

We know that students are often the first people to know of dangerous behaviors and we see that in the variety of issues reported to the tip line each year: bullying, domestic violence, child abuse, dating violence, physical threats, sexual assault, substance abuse, weapons, suicide threats, gangs, fighting, animal cruelty, sexting and more. Most often, tip reports received involve some type of a mental health concern. Bullying continues to be the most reported concern with 2,118 tips received since 2004, followed by concerns with drugs and alcohol abuse (1,298 tips received), suicides (1,218), and threats of violence (787).

Tip reports are increasing each year as the number of young people connect to others across the country through social media; they are more aware of and making use of the Safe2Tell solution to report dangerous and threatening behaviors they see online. The use of social media by students, including online gaming, chat rooms, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, increases the opportunity to know about something before it happens and provides the venue to hear of threats through postings and witness dangerous behavior through photos and videos. In the past two years, the number of reports coming in via web and texting has exceeded the amount of phone calls, demonstrating the increased use of technology by young people and their preferred communication methods.

The impact Safe2Tell has on a community can be demonstrated through the number of reports received from a specific area, but the impact of saving just one person’s life is immeasurable. Safe2Tell gives everyone a chance to be a hero and helps save lives by aiding in health and well-being of young people, just by making one call, sending a text or submitting a web report. Safe2Tell provides an outlet for us all to be engaged in the solution to creating healthier communities.

To learn more about Safe2Tell and its impact in Colorado communities, visit safe2tell.org and view the 2013 Impact Report.

Suzi Karrer, Director of Development & Partnerships, Safe2Tell