NEWTOWN, Conn., Sept. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Sandy Hook Promise and Bark announce a strategic partnership creating the country's first comprehensive "home-to-school" portfolio of prevention programs for schools and parents to utilize to prevent shootings, acts of violence, and other harmful acts.
When it comes to prevention of school shootings and violence, experts agree that solutions need to start in the home and extend into school. It is for this very reason that Sandy Hook Promise and Bark have joined forces to bring comprehensive solutions to tens of thousands of schools and millions of parents nationwide.
Specifically, Sandy Hook Promise will teach students and educators how to recognize warning signs, intervene and provide help through delivery of its evidenced-based "Know the Signs" programs. Meanwhile, Bark will provide its flagship Bark for Families product as well as its community-oriented Bark for Schools safety suite to alert parents and schools to signs of potential danger in online content such as text messaging, email, and 24+ social media platforms.
Since inception, Sandy Hook Promise and Bark programs have intervened cumulatively upon hundreds of school shootings, thousands of suicides, and other harmful threats. By strategically combining program and operational outreach and implementation together, they are creating a comprehensive solution that will reach more schools, more students, and more parents - resulting in innumerable interventions and lives saved in the years ahead.
"We know that educating kids to 'know the signs' of potential violence is helping to prevent tragedies from happening. Coupling our lifesaving school training with Bark's award-winning safety software provides a holistic solution to help keep kids safe, both online and in real life, and gives parents greater peace of mind and engagement with their children. Both Bark and Sandy Hook Promise are committed to saving lives and protecting children, which makes our partnership an ideal match," said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise and mother of Dylan, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.
In 2015, Bark launched its flagship product, Bark for Families, which monitors text messages, emails, YouTube, and 24+ social media platforms for issues like cyberbullying, online predators, adult content, depression, acts of violence, suicidal ideation, and more.
In 2018, Bark extended its suite of online safety services to all K-12 public and private schools in the U.S. - at no cost to them or their communities. They offer content monitoring of school-issued accounts, web filtering, and a Parent Portal for after-hours alerts.
