A grant-funded program from Brightside Behavioral Health, offering trauma-informed training, student resilience workshops, family supports, and an AI-supported toolkit for educators and staff. Free to participating districts during the pilot.
Exposure to violence in communities and through constant media has reshaped what students bring into the classroom. Schools were not built to absorb this alone, so it is imperative to provide educators and staff with the training, tools, and identify the time to respond accordingly.
Anxiety, aggression, and withdrawal are appearing earlier. Educators report feeling unprepared to respond to the intensity and frequency of emotional dysregulation.
Students disengaged from learning can often struggle to feel safe and secure. School discipline protocol alone does not address the underlying or unidentified need.
Families need timely behavioral health services, and the gap between need and access is widening. Schools become the de facto support system.
Burnout drives absenteeism, emotional exhaustion, cognitive overload, and reduced capacity to effectively support students.
The SAFE Initiative is built as a layered support system: training for the adults, skills for the students, resources for families, and a fast pathway to professional care when it's needed.
A three-hour workshop (can be all at once or broken into three one-hour sessions, in person or webinar) giving teachers and staff classroom-ready tools to recognize trauma responses, de-escalate behaviors, and improve climate. Includes an optional one-hour follow-up coaching session.
Licensed clinician-led 45-minute to one-hour small-group sessions. Ten sessions plus two optional peer support training sessions per school. Age-appropriate presentations on coping, emotional regulation, media literacy, and navigating AI-driven content.
A free, secure web app that gives educators calm, trauma-informed guidance in the moments they need it. Three tools, built around the way teachers actually work.
Guidance for families on supporting children at home, plus a direct, streamlined referral pathway to outpatient therapy and psychiatric services. This offers continuity of care beyond the school day.
SAFEin is the digital piece of the SAFE Initiative. It gives counselors and teachers a calm, trauma-informed guide they can access in the moments that matter most. Every response is grounded in BBHRI's clinical voice, scanned for crisis signals, and bound by guardrails that never let it stand in for a therapist.
Whether you're a school leader exploring the SAFEin pilot or a parent who wants to understand what could be available to your child's school, here's where to start.
Participation in the pilot is fully grant-funded with no cost to participating districts during the initial implementation period. We work alongside your existing counselors and administrators, not instead of them.
The SAFE Initiative supports the adults in your child's school so they're better equipped to recognize, respond to, and care for students who are struggling. Your child does not interact with SAFEin's tools directly. No student data flows through them.
Whether you represent a school district considering a pilot, a family with questions, or a community partner who wants to help, we'd like to hear from you.