The Bark Blog                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Sandy Hook Promise partnership Bark for Schools

Sandy Hook Promise Partners With Bark to Protect Students

Haley Zapal  |  September 18, 2019

Bark is proud to announce our strategic partnership with Sandy Hook Promise that will bring comprehensive safety solutions to tens of thousands of schools and millions of parents nationwide. We’re grateful for all of the work Sandy Hook Promise is doing to help keep communities safe, and we look forward to doing everything we can together to make an impact felt all across the country.

Sandy Hook Promise is a nonprofit based in Newtown, CT, and is led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the devastating mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. Their mission is to prevent school violence and victimization by creating a culture of engaged youth and adults — one that’s composed of people committed to identifying, engaging, and getting help for individuals who might be at risk of hurting themselves or others.

Sandy Hook Promise Partnership

No parent should have to worry that their child won’t come home from school at the end of the day. It’s our shared belief that we need to take affirmative steps towards ensuring that communities are better protected from the senseless acts of violence that are all too common in America.

Sandy Hook Promise will provide curricula to students and educators that train them to recognize warning signs, intervene, and provide help through the delivery of its evidenced-based “Know the Signs” programs. Meanwhile, Bark will provide its flagship Bark for Families product — as well as its free and community-oriented Bark for Schools safety suite — to alert parents, guardians, and schools to signs of potential danger detected in online content.

“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,” 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.

A Shared Dedication to Child Safety

Together, Sandy Hook Promise and Bark have intervened cumulatively in hundreds of school shootings, thousands of suicides, and other harmful threats. By strategically combining our strengths and resources, our organizations are helping to create a comprehensive solution that will reach more schools, more students, and more families — resulting in innumerable interventions and lives saved in the years ahead.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Sandy Hook Promise, as we both have missions that aim to help prevent shootings and acts of violence in schools and communities,” said Brian Bason, CEO of Bark. “Sandy Hook Promise is making incredible strides in this national movement, and by working together, we look to partner with and protect even more families and schools across the nation.”

It takes a village to raise safe, happy, and healthy children in the digital age. Our partnership with Sandy Hook Promise is an important step towards making sure all communities have what they need to help protect kids online and in real life. Shielding kids from digital dangers requires schools and families to work together, and our products enable both groups to monitor kids’ online accounts for signs of cyberbullying, self-harm, online predators, threats of violence, and more.

Bark helps families manage and protect their children’s digital lives.

mother and daughter discussing Bark Parental Controls