CONNECTED COMMUNITIES
Out-of-the-box, hands-on training
that provides support to students, staff,
and parents when they need it most.
Out-of-the-box, hands-on training that provides support to students, staff, and parents when they need it most.
Connected Communities is a first-of-its-kind program for 4th- and 5th-graders that brings together students, educators, and parents to align around online safety needs for our kids. It’s already transforming schools across the country, and you can help bring it to yours.
What is Connected Communities?
Connected Communities is a three-day, in-person program led by Bark’s online safety education experts. It fills a critical gap in many schools’ efforts today, focusing on building healthy habits and developing key skills to stay safe online from an early age.
With Connected Communities, all stakeholders gain the skills and awareness to prevent problems before they start — meeting short-term demands and building a foundation for long-term success.
- Students: Learn to manage emotions, practice digital etiquette, use AI responsibly, and spot misinformation.
- Teachers: Understand where tech fits in class, recognize when students are struggling, and foster safe discussions.
- Parents: Model good tech habits, identify risky behaviors, and keep conversations open and supportive.
What we cover
Skill development
Help students use tech responsibly, practice media balance, understand when and how to use technology in class, navigate online conflict in healthy ways, and build digital resilience that supports their emotional well-being and academic success.
Parent collaboration
Give families the tools to reinforce safety at home, meeting parent expectations for transparency and adding coverage for the time when most incidents that bleed into school hours occur.
Early prevention
Shift from reacting to preventing by teaching kids digital etiquette, foundational online behaviors, and healthy habits early, and teachers how to model healthy tech use in the classroom and identify warning signs.
Teacher support and capacity building
Bark provides experienced educators who lead every lesson and manage all parent communications, delivering turnkey support that reduces staff burden and ensures consistent implementation across classrooms.
What participants are saying
“The in-person, expert-led sessions will reinforce our digital wellness and citizenship curriculum while engaging our students and the community to advocate for safer digital practices. This type of constructive, hands-on training will leave a lasting impression on our students that we hope will translate into a lifetime of responsible and effective internet and device use.”
—Jacque Fewin, Executive Director of Technology, Lubbock-Cooper ISD
“I thought this was gonna be a boring cybersecurity presentation, but this by far exceeded expectations and talked about real-life stuff!”
—Student from Macfarlane Park ES
In one pilot district,
consistent messaging and a shared pledge
increased parent engagement by 40%
and reduced online conduct issues.
Our sessions include:
Student workshops
In-person training in topics like group texting, media literacy, social media, cyberbullying, healthy digital habits, and more.
Parent engagement
Receive up-to-date education on what your kid is facing online, and what you can do to help, including warning signs.
Educator training
Support for educators on key trends and challenges to keep an eye out for during the school day, and how to provide help when needed.
What a Connected Community
means for your school
- Consistent, expert-led instruction across every school without adding work to teachers’ plates.
- A clear path to meet new digital literacy and safety requirements with minimal lift or confusion.
- Stronger academic and community outcomes as students and families get support for tech use.
"Connected Communities will allow us to expand awareness of positive, safer online habits from our classrooms into the broader community."
"Connected Communities will allow us to expand awareness of positive,
safer online habits from our classrooms into the broader community."
—Jacque Fewin, Executive Director of Technology, Lubbock-Cooper ISD
Students need real-world digital skills, not yesterday’s checklists.
Schools are facing rising expectations for digital literacy and safety, but capacity hasn’t kept pace. With limited staff time, shifting tech, and growing parent pressure, most efforts start too late. And while safety tools can alert, they can’t teach.
