By Ashley Ranger
Published December 4, 2025

Youth today are experiencing constant stimulation. If they are not on their phones, they are staring at a computer screen or TV screen for most of their day. While we have seen the constant growth of technology entering our everyday lives, young people have become highly dependent on it for social connection.

The COVID-19 pandemic fostered an environment where young people only had technology to connect, even if that connection was artificial. These artificial connections between peers have only increased anxiety when it comes to person-to-person interactions. When students returned to school, they came face-to-face with tangible reality which caused them to further isolate themselves. Technology allows people to mask, even play a role, but in person there are no filters.

Coming back from years of digital isolation caused spikes in anxiety and depression amongst youth. With no filters comes insecurity, which causes the need for students to protect themselves, and sometimes protecting themselves means putting down others. According to the CDC, in 2023 40% of students reported feelings of isolation, loneliness, and sadness, 20% reported having suicidal ideation. This statistic shows how much of an impact the COVID-19 pandemic caused, and that students are still learning to heal from it. The question is, how does the Safe School Ambassadors Program work to tackle the youth mental health crisis?

The Safe School Ambassadors Program is an evidence-based program that empowers youth to create safe, inclusive, and welcoming school climates. The program teaches ‘Ambassador Actions’ that students can use to safely intervene when they witness bullying and stop it before it can turn into physical violence. One of the actions is called “Getting Help” which prepares students to notice when something is too big for them to handle (i.e. self-harm, substance abuse, etc.) and to get help by finding an adult on campus they trust. The action of “Getting Help” can greatly impact the youth experiencing a crisis because someone took the time to notice their need. As we continue to show youth how to identify when their peers need help, we can significantly address the prevalence of mental health problems faced by youth.

Today, youth need us more than they ever have before. Let’s build a student-led safety net by actively listening when youth come to us with anxieties and harmful situations. For more information about how the Safe School Ambassadors Program fits your school, reach out to Community Matters! Together we can build safer, more connected school communities.

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Ashley Ranger is a Program & Training Coordinator at Community Matters in Santa Rosa, California. She has more than seven years of experience working alongside young people and families to build safe, welcoming, and connected communities. In her current role, she develops youth programs and coordinates professional development for school staff and administrators. Ashley believes in supporting youth to lead with empathy, speak up for others,
and create positive change in their schools and neighborhoods. She brings a background in English and a trauma-informed, relationship-centered approach to her work.

 

By Kerry Rego
Published October 2, 2025

Walking onto school campuses to talk to parents, administrators, and students always feels charged with electricity. I’m often called in after something awful has happened such as when a social media challenge gets out of hand, when students have begun bullying others online, or parents grow concerned about their children’s digital behavior. The adults that greet me are clearly worried and the kids reflect their energy – these campuses are tense.

Parents and administrators have a limited technology background and students know more than enough to be a danger to themselves and their friends. As a social media and technology educator, I learn what the problem is and develop solutions that match the needs of my audience.

The administrators and I often agree to address the audiences in two groups – parents and children. I speak to children during the day in assemblies then parents in the evening. The presentations are designed as companion pieces, giving all parties the same language in order to communicate with each other more effectively.

I encourage you to take a look at the Upcoming Workshops and Webinars offered by Community Matters or reach out to them to coordinate a program for your campus.

Every presentation I give includes a Family Safety Plan for Bullying, one geared for children and one for adults. You and your child might work through a bullying situation together but that won’t always be the case. Your child may be navigating it on their own without your knowledge. It’s a scary thought but our job is to teach them how to be safe because we won’t always be with them. They may find themselves helping a friend through a difficult situation and their action list will guide them through it.

Treat these safety lists like an emergency drill – children especially need to know the plan and they need to practice it. Print and review the plan as a family to make sure everyone knows what to do when/if an emergency happens.

The Family Safety Plans below are adapted from advice listed on the U.S. federal government website StopBullying.gov.

Family Safety Plan for Parents:

1. Get Prepared Before Bad Things Happen
   1. Help your child identify at least two trusted adults in their life such as a parent, relative, school counselor, pastor, etc.
   2. Help your child identify their closest friends or their “crew.”

2. Notice Behavior
   1. Monitor for changes in mood or behavior and explore what the cause(s) might be.
   2. Try to determine if these changes happen around a child’s use of their digital devices.

3. Talk to Them
   1. Ask questions to learn what is happening, how it started, and who is involved.

4. Create a Record
   1. Create and maintain a record of digital or physical threats and actions with dates of events and useful details.
   2. Take screenshots of harmful posts, content, and communications. Save links to any online content, if possible.

5. Report to Authorities
   1. Report offensive content to the app or social media platforms to start the process of removal.
   2. If the behavior happens at school, report to multiple school officials in this order – teacher, school counselor, principal, and superintendent. Keep records of your communications and let each person know whom you are reporting to keep everyone accountable.
   3. Inform your state Department of Education. Schools regularly fail to protect their students in cases of bullying and the more people you inform, the more likely you are to get assistance and action. If school officials aren’t helping, see the * at the end of this list.
   4. If the behavior happens in a non-school environment, report to the responsible adult or deciding body.
   5. If a child has received physical threats, or if a potential crime or illegal behavior has occurred, report it to your local police.

6. Block the Bully
   1. Wait several days rather than blocking right away
   2. Increase protection and privacy settings
   3. Review online friends with your child. Delete any online friends or followers that may be fake. These profiles are often where bullies are hiding.

7. Support
   1. Sometimes public intervention is appropriate. Adults and peers can positively influence a situation where negative content is posted about a child. This can include posting positive comments about the person targeted to shift the conversation in a positive direction. It can also help to reach out to the aggressor as well as the target of the bullying to express your concern about their well-being.
   2. Provide your love and support to the child experiencing bullying. Make sure they understand that they aren’t at fault. They might need professional mental health services to counteract the damage inflicted.

*There are no current federal laws that apply to bullying but you can learn more about the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights via the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and options available to you and your child on StopBullying.gov.

Family Safety Plan for Kids:

1. Tell a Safe Adult
   1. Identify at least two trusted adults in your life such as a parent, relative, school counselor, pastor, etc.

2. Don’t Respond
   1. Engaging with the bully is adding kindling to the fire. We want to starve the fire and give the bully nothing to work with.
   2. Delete the apps off your phone or device, or block the offending website, rather than deleting the accounts. The bully can see you’ve deleted the account (kindling for the fire) but they can’t see that the app has been removed or the site blocked (lack of activity or response starves the flame).

3. Create a Record
   1. Create and maintain a record of digital or physical threats and actions with dates of events and useful details.
   2. Take screenshots of harmful posts, content, and communications. Save links to any online content, if possible.

4. Report to Authorities
   1. Report offensive content to the app or social media platforms to start the process of removal.
   2. If the behavior happens at school, report to school officials in this order – teacher, school counselor, and principal. Keep records of your reports.
   3. If the behavior happens in a non-school environment, tell the adult in charge. If they’re not a good option, go to your safe adults for help.
   4. If you’ve received physical threats, or if a potential crime or illegal behavior has occurred, report it to your local police.

5. Block the Bully
   1. Wait several days rather than blocking right away
   2. Increase protection and privacy settings
   3. Delete any online friends or followers that you aren’t sure if they’re real. These profiles may be where bullies are hiding.

6. Involve Your Crew
   1. Send up an “I Need Help” signal to your friends
   2. Talk to them about what’s going on and how you feel
   3. Get mental health support if you feel it would be helpful

 Downloads
PDF by Kerry Rego
Google Doc Kids & Parents 

 

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Kerry Rego is a social media consultant, trainer, author, and speaker. Specializing in social media marketing, Kerry is associate faculty at Santa Rosa Junior College, a subject matter expertfor California Community Colleges, and a former lecturer at Sonoma State University. She has authored four books about social media strategy and reputation management.

By Erica Vogel, CEO, Community Matters
Published August 13, 2025

On July 30, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to confront rising suicide rates and growing disconnection among California’s boys and young men, calling for coordinated mental health, education, and workforce support across the state. This action shines a spotlight on a crisis that extends far beyond California. Research shows young men report shrinking social circles and fewer close friendships: risk factors for loneliness and mental health struggles that school communities feel every day.

At Community Matters, we see what’s possible when students are equipped to look out for one another. Our Safe School Ambassadors® (SSA) Program is a proven, peer-led model that helps prevent bullying, reduce isolation, build connections, and create healthier school climates. This work directly advances the intent of the Governor’s order and is urgently needed nationwide.

How the SSA Program Aligns with the Executive Order
The SSA Program is a proven, peer-led model that uniquely addresses many of the challenges outlined in the Governor’s directive. It transforms students into “Upstanders” who use their influence among peers to prevent and intervene in incidents of bullying, mistreatment, and social isolation. This work directly advances several components of the executive order:

Reversing the Crisis of Loneliness and Disconnection
Governor Newsom highlights the alarming number of boys and young men who report having no close friends, with nearly 1 in 4 men under 30 expressing deep social disconnection. SSA builds authentic connection among youth by training and supporting them to recognize and respond compassionately to emotional distress in their peers.

By leveraging students’ natural social networks, the program ensures that no student, including boys who often mask their hurt as anger or defiance, feels invisible. SSA helps people connect, belong, and support one another in a safe, school-based environment.

Promoting Healthy Masculinity and Peer Support
As the executive order emphasizes, many young men suffer in silence due to outdated gender norms and a lack of emotionally attuned male role models. SSA empowers male students to lead with empathy, courage, and emotional literacy modeling healthy masculinity for their peers.

Through facilitated dialogues and ongoing adult and peer mentorship, SSA normalizes asking for help and talking about feelings, equipping students with the tools to take positive action rather than act out. In schools across the United States and beyond our borders, we have seen this approach reduce incidents of aggression, isolation, and self-harm among young people.

Supporting Early Intervention and Preventing Punitive Discipline
The data is clear: boys, especially boys of color, are suspended, expelled, or referred to law enforcement at far higher rates than their peers, often for behaviors that may be expressions of trauma. The SSA Program creates a culture of peer accountability and positive behavior reinforcement that prevents issues from escalating into punishable infractions.

Instead of defaulting to disciplinary exclusion, the program fosters a restorative school culture where peer relationships can address root causes and build resilience, helping young people stay connected to their school communities and invested in their futures.

Elevating Youth Leadership and Career Pathways
The SSA program instills leadership, communication, and conflict resolution skills that are essential for success in school, work, and life. By identifying and nurturing diverse male students as Upstanders and leaders, SSA opens doors to broader educational and career opportunities, particularly for those who might not see themselves as “traditional leaders.”

Our alumni have gone on to become social workers, educators, youth advocates, and civic leaders, often citing SSA as a pivotal turning point in discovering their sense of purpose and self-worth.

Addressing Equity and Access Barriers
Governor Newsom rightly underscores that boys and young men of color, particularly Black, Latino, and Indigenous youth, are among the most underserved by current mental health systems. SSA prioritizes culturally responsive engagement and is adaptable to the needs of diverse school communities.

Because the program is embedded in schools and led by peers, it removes many of the access barriers (like stigma, cost, and transportation) that prevent boys from receiving timely support.

A Sustainable, Scalable, and Proven Solution
While much of the state’s recent funding is short-term, SSA offers a sustainable model that schools can continue through trained site facilitators and community partnerships. Community Matters has already impacted over 170,000 students in more than 2,100 schools across 42 US states, 2 US Territories, Washington DC, Paraguay, Japan, and Canada, with data showing decreased bullying, improved school climate, and strengthened student mental health.

A Community-Based Answer to a Statewide and National Crisis
Governor Newsom’s courageous, timely call to address the mental health and social challenges facing young men demands proven solutions. Community Matters and the SSA Program specifically stand ready to partner with districts, counties, and community organizations to scale what has worked for 25+ years. Rather than creating something new, we will expand and deepen a model already delivering results: equipping students with the tools to lead, connect, and care for themselves and others. In doing so, we can transform schools into powerful incubators of healing, belonging, and hope. When we invest in peer leadership, we don’t just reduce harm; we grow hope.

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Erica Vogel is a proud mom of 2 boys, now young men!
Both boys were Safe School Ambassadors in their high school years.

Erica has extensive experience in youth development and programming with a specialization in developing and implementing youth empowerment programs for disadvantaged and culturally diverse young people. Prior to joining Community Matters, she worked in high level leadership positions with the YMCA, the American Heart Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Erica has worked for Community Matters since 2010 and in 2020 took the reigns as the CEO. Erica holds a B.A. in Management and Organizational Development from Spring Arbor University.

by Claire de Mézerville-López M.Ed M.S.
Community Engagement Specialist, IIRP

Resilience is a concept that emerged in the psychological field in the 1990’s, referring to an individual’s ability to recover from adversity. Coming to an understanding of resilience has engendered controversy: what does it take for an individual to have the golden substance of resiliency? Is it natured or nurtured? It may sound similar to talking about alchemy. I must clarify right now that my focus here is not about the individual’s capacity for resiliency. I want to talk about the community’s capacity for resiliency and how this resiliency can become strengthened through youth’s peer mentoring in school communities.

Defining Resilience & Peer Mentoring in Community
The American Psychological Association (2025) defines resilience as “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands” (APA, 2025). I will address how this applies to communities in the following section.
As for peer mentoring, I will understand it as the support and advice someone receives from somebody that has experienced similar issues (The Advocacy Project, 2025). Finally, I will define community here as:
“any group sharing something in common — place (such as a city, neighborhood, or school district), experience (such as shared experience of racism), or interest (e.g., a community’s concern about poverty or violence prevention)” (University of Kansas, 2025).
So, how do we understand community resilience, specifically if we are referring to school communities, and how can peer mentoring help?

Creating Resilient Communities
Ellis and Dietz (2017) define resilient communities as those that have the following conditions:
1. The community is able to sustain economic development
2. Residents possess social capital to some degree
3. Effective bidirectional transfer of information and communication between residents and the social services agencies that serve them
4. The community is competent to support civic engagement, self-management of their health and social needs, and collective empowerment for community advocacy and engagement
These are basic conditions for communities to face and endure adversity. Considering these elements, Ellis et al. (2022) have found that policies and practices that shape the structural conditions of any community, are significant in the promotion or suppression of their ability to face adversity. Let me recap: (1) economic development, (2) social capital, (3) education and health services that work WITH the community (instead of FOR them), and (4) advocacy through civic engagement, should be a priority in any initiative towards strengthening community. It is important to consider, however, that working on these large and complex structural issues may lead adults to act without consulting or engaging youth and students.

The importance of empowering youth
Krauskopf (2014) warns against the risks of adult-centered settings and how they undermine possibilities for positive youth development. Adult-centered organizing treats children and adolescents as passive recipients of services. This means missing the opportunities that youth may have for developing skills, enhancing self-confidence, creating a sense of belonging and committing generously to giving back to their surrounding community. Engaging youth is not limited to consulting with them: it means creating an active listening space for adults to understand them and allow them to actively participate.

Peer mentoring can take different forms in that process; it may mean supporting youth to organize in small peer groups, led by some of them, and present their proposals and agendas. It may include identifying youth leaders to support kids that are falling behind academically or socially. It may also mean identifying potential leaders and allowing current leaders to foster a mentoring relationship with them so that they can become fully engaged with these initiatives. It could also mean to create talking circles to ask the youth: what kind of mentoring would you need to participate actively in the issues that we are facing right now? These types of conversations are supported by the work done by Community Matters to train youth leaders and school staff in Restorative Practices and in bystander education through the Safe School Ambassadors® program.

To some, this may seem like an unnecessary task for school communities: there’s so much work to do already! Yet, fostering student leadership will definitely create a stronger sense of collective self-efficacy in our oh-so-complex twenty-first century. There are no recipes or clear cut solutions. For communities to prepare and become ever more resilient, there’s significant work to be continued, through organizing, engaging, and advocating. Actively including youth is healthy, and doing so through horizontal exchanges that foster growth, such as receiving mentoring support from a peer, will offer a profound sense of human connection, positive opportunities for youth development and an overall strengthening of educational collectives that need to be ready to face a volatile and fast-changing world.

References
American Psychological Association (2025). Resilience. https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience
Ellis, W. & Dietz, W. (2017). A New Framework for Addressing Adverse Childhood and Community Experiences: The Building Community Resilience (BCR) Model. Academic Pediatrics, 586-593. https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2016.12.011
Ellis, W.; Dietz, W.H., & Chen, K.D. (2022). Community Resilience: A Dynamic Model for Public Health 3.0. J Public Health Manag Pract, 28(1): S18-S26. https://www.doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0000000000001413
Krauskopf, D. (2014). Adolescencia y Educación. EUNED.
The Advocacy Project (2018). Mental Health and Peer Mentoring – Sharing Hope. https://www.advocacyproject.org.uk/news/mental-health-peer-mentoring-sharing-hope/
University of Kansas (2025). Community Toolbox. Section 2. Understanding and Describing the Community. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/describe-the-community/main

 

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Claire de Mézerville López is a licensed psychologist from UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica). She holds a Master in Education with an emphasis on cognitive development from ITESM (Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, México), and a Master of Science in Restorative Practices from the IIRP Graduate School, and is a Ph.D. ABD (all but dissertation) candidate at the Community Engagement Program at PointPark University. She is also an associate professor at Universidad de Costa Rica, and has experience as a therapist, researcher, and consultant. Claire has published papers on adolescence, restorative practices, resilience and educational psychology. Claire has worked with the IIRP since 2011, where she currently serves as a liaison to Spanish-speaking communities and organizations in Latin America and elsewhere.

 

by Rachel Hunkler

Community Matters and the Eradicate Hate Global Summit share the goal of empowering and engaging youth voices. We believe including young people in anti-hate and community safety efforts is critical to their success.

We know that young people’s actions can make a tremendous difference – sometimes the difference between life and death. Research on this topic indicates that approximately 80% of school shooters leak communications indicating their intentions prior to their attack.  Research also tells us that peers are more likely to receive these leaked communications and are, therefore, much better positioned to identify concerning behaviors.

That’s why Community Matters and Eradicate Hate teamed up for the UP End Hate initiative, which launched in September 2024. UP End Hate is designed specifically to equip young people ages 12-22 with the knowledge and skills they need to be an upstander — someone who knows the warning signs of someone on a potential pathway to violence, pays attention to changes in peers’ behaviors, and speaks up when something is concerning.

While UP End Hate is a nationwide awareness campaign, Community Matters is piloting an in-person component in 10 middle and high schools across the United States. The pilot infuses Community Matters’ existing Safe School Ambassadors® program with additional resources and training on topics like hate online, how to tell if something is a joke, and what the warning signs are that an Ambassador should seek help for a peer.

Last semester, Community Matters trained approximately 400 students at the 10 pilot UP End Hate schools. This semester, these Ambassadors will use the newly launched UP End Hate Student Toolkit to run their own peer-to-peer campaigns to raise awareness about how students can foster resilient school communities. With pre-made posters, social media posts, daily announcement scripts, and suggested school-wide activities, the toolkit delivers a ready-made digital “campaign-in-a-box” for students to immediately use.

Eradicate Hate and Community Matters co-designed the toolkit’s campaign messaging, which focuses on three actionable categories to be an effective upstander and to create safer school communities — being kind, being curious, and being courageous.  For example:

Be kind: Say “hello” to the first 10 people you see today.

Be curious: Learn the warning signs that a classmate might need extra support.

Be courageous: Speak up when you notice hateful words or actions, in person or online.

While the individual actions themselves are simple, their collective potential impact on school climate is enormous. Ambassadors at the 10 pilot schools will test out the effect these toolkits have on their school communities and share results at a virtual meeting later this spring.

In addition, as part of Family Group meetings this semester, Ambassadors will take the free UP End Hate “Hate 101” mini-course to become a certified UP End Hate Upstander. Finally, Ambassadors will be invited to join their peers around the country for a free, four-part virtual UP End Hate youth webinar series that will take place in late February and early March.

While these 10 pilot schools are part of the formal pilot program, all resources and events for UP End Hate are free and accessible online. Any student can become a certified Upstander, and any school can download and use the toolkit, regardless of any prior affiliation with the UP End Hate project. We encourage any schools, students, and educators interested in this work to visit www.upendhate.org and follow us on Instagram to get involved.

About UP End Hate:

UP End Hate is run by the Eradicate Hate Global Summit (EHGS), Community Matters, The Reilly Group, and Moonshot, with input from a 20-member Youth Advisory Council. The FY23 Department of Homeland Security Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grant program funds UP End Hate. All materials hosted on the UP End Hate website are free and accessible to the public. The campaign is anonymous and does not collect any personally identifiable information.

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Rachel Hunkler serves as the Director of Programming and Evaluation at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit. In this role, she oversees the strategic design, execution, evaluation, and scaling of the Summit’s yearlong programs and the integration of these programs into the Summit’s Working Groups. Hunkler provides leadership and expertise on efforts to gather, analyze, and disseminate impact data on the Summit’s Working Groups and programs. She specializes in instructional design, training facilitation, program management, and monitoring and evaluation. Read Rachel’s full bio here.

 

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since the tragic mass shootings on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. I can vividly remember watching the horror on live television as students and staff were desperately climbing out of windows trying to get out of harm’s way any way they could.

It was a seminal moment in US history, one that was seared in our individual and collective consciousness.

Within weeks of the tragedy, I found myself deeply troubled and compelled to take action. That call to action drew upon my life experiences, both as a victim of bullying and as an educator committed to youth empowerment, believing that young people were an underutilized and untapped resource who were in the best position to make our school safer.

I never imagined that 25 years later, the Safe School Ambassadors Program (SSA), would not only survive, but thrive in schools everywhere. Such a simple and powerful idea; identify and enroll diverse student leaders, equip, and empower them with the motivation, tools, and support to be Upstanders. SSA mobilizes Upstanders willing and ready to say and do something when they witness or know of injustice, hatred, bullying and cyberbullying in their school community.

Think about it. How many students, many now adults, parents, and teachers who have been impacted and forever changed by the opportunity to be a part of the Safe School Ambassadors movement.

I share this with you to honor every Community Matters (CM) trainer, staff member and board member (past and present), and school officials who believed in us. Every Program Advisor, every Family Group Facilitator, every Administrator, every Ambassador, every funder, every donor, every parent, and many others, who stood with us in the development and implementation of SSA.

I can’t name everyone individually, but I want to say a special thanks to Chris Pack, who side-by side, contributed mightily to the success of CM and SSA. And to John Linney, master trainer and co-author of the Safe School Ambassadors book. I also want to express gratitude to Erica Vogel, CEO and the CM staff team who kept CM afloat during the pandemic.

Lastly, my heartfelt appreciation to the “road warrior” trainers who by planes, trains, automobiles, and determination showed up and delivered time after time, even when it wasn’t easy.

With a sense of perspective, I feel blessed to have had the privilege of knowing and working with so many dedicated and amazing people. I have been fortunate to be part of a community and a movement that wakes up courage, empowers young people to be active contributors and literally saves lives, emotionally and physically. This is a legacy we all get to share.

The world needs our work, our voices, and our commitment more than ever. We have more to do to help schools become communities of compassion. CM is in a unique and important position to leverage our experience and our success, allowing us to not only wake up the courage of young people but also inspire educational leaders. Educators are grappling with how to build a positive school culture, address school violence, teach academics, retain good staff, and regain the support of families and the broader community.

Despite the challenges and the tragedies that plague many schools, our Community Matters mission continues to guide us through the dark and into the light. On this auspicious day of remembrance, I remain hopeful, grateful, even eager to be in the “fire” of public education at a time of such great need.

As individuals we are effective, but together we are a force, a force that can provide hope, tools, resources, and support to youth and adults in schools everywhere.

In the spirit of community,

Rick Phillips

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Rick Phillips is the founder and former Executive Director of Community Matters, and co-creator of the Safe School Ambassadors® Program.