Nonprofit and Tech Company Unite to Combat Bullying, Empower Students and Deter School Violence

WILMINGTON, N.C., Aug. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A national nonprofit dedicated to eliminating school and community violence has partnered with a tech company to combat bullying and empower students to speak up about threats and potential violence on campus.

And they're doing it at no cost for all certified K-12 schools in the nation.

For the past decade, the National Center for the Prevention of Community Violence (NCPCV) has been driven by the belief that violence is a process, not an event. Through its anti-bullying and anti-violence program, GreenZone, NCPCV has empowered thousands of students across the nation to behave civilly at school and at home and has given them tools to effectively regulate their behaviors and interactions with others.

Now, NCPCV is expanding its scope by adding ProText My School technology to GreenZone. Together, they create a comprehensive system of programs, training, and technology to enhance school safety response, improve school climate, and empower students to anonymously share information about potentially violent or threatening events on campus.

"ProText My School enables students, parents, and staff to safely share tips and other critical information directly to their school officials via a school-specific number for text messaging or the web," said Bobby Kipper, NCPCV founder and executive director. "When paired with GreenZone, ProText My School will give school officials an edge to better understand how they can help students communicate and promote a violence-free campus."

Unlike traditional text-to-tip technology, which is a one-way pass through of information, ProText My School engages users in an automated conversation about what's happening and sends real-time alerts to designated responders, like school administrators or school resource officers.

"ProText My School uses an intelligent conversational engine to evaluate information about bullying, campus safety and other concerns," said Anthony Formhals, founder, CEO, and president of Voice, the company that created ProText My School. "Based on information received, a dynamic, conversational framework with machine-learning tools collects and evaluates information. It then alerts school administration and/or law enforcement in real time. It's not meant to replace 911 for emergencies. Instead, it gives school officials a closer look at what's happening with students on campus, on social media, and in the community, which may directly affect campus safety."

NCPCV will help schools establish multidisciplinary response teams, called CARE teams, to respond to information received through ProText My School, and will train these teams based on national best practices for critical incident and crisis response.

ProText My School technology is another layer of support for schools, providing an instant resource for students to safely and anonymously share information with school officials from wherever they are, anytime, day or night.

As part of this partnership, NCPCV is seeking an exclusive sponsor to make this available to all certified K-12 schools in the nation at no cost.

"School violence continues to happen at an alarming rate," Kipper said. "What we're doing now as a nation is not working. We need to come together and support a comprehensive system that coaches students on how to deal with difficulties, empowers them to communicate effectively without violence, and ensures they have resources at hand to reach out for help."

To learn more about ProText My School, visit http://www.protextmyschool.org. To learn more about becoming a sponsor to help bring this to every school in the nation for free, check out the ProText My School sponsorship packet.

SOURCE ProText My School

Related Links

http://www.protextmyschool.org