The Safety Equity Program

We’ve created the Safety Equity Program in an effort that all schools have this foundational, standardized communication tool without cost.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” - James Baldwin

The Free Forever Safety Equity Program

It’s challenging for an organization to facilitate communication on a person-to-person basis. There always needs to be a standard protocol for how people and systems share information, otherwise there’s no accountability for what gets said to whom. We’ve created the Safety Equity Program in the effort that all schools have this foundational, standardized communication tool without cost. This is accomplished by providing schools with a technological platform that allows users to develop and gather emergency preparedness information, allowing for easy access to staff and first responders in the event of an emergency. Instead of a school administrator having to bounce between their email, school calendar, binders and word of mouth, they are able to access everything underneath a single online portal. For example, if a school’s principal doesn't feel prepared for an upcoming fire drill, they could simply log onto their Safety Equity platform, click on the DRILLS tab and have access to the drill’s scheduled time, the pre-drill plan and pertinent evacuation maps and floor plans - all on the same page. Alternatively, without the free Safety Equity platform, a user would have to go through multiple levels of communication - scroll through their email, revisit their drill’s plan, reference a paper copy, and perhaps even ask a superior for more details before they would have the same information that the KnowWhat REM provided in a matter of 2 clicks. 

Effective, Efficient Communication Saves Time & Money

Not only is the Safety Equity platform more efficient than the traditional methods of communication within a school, but it allows administrators to take advantage of their daily schedule. When the correct resources are available at hand, they won’t have to waste time and energy overcoming the confusion inherent in the traditional methods, they will have more time to focus on their priorities. This will only serve to increase the staff’s confidence, better the interpersonal communication within faculty, create cohesion between the school and first responders and ultimately, promote the general welfare of their school body.  The communicative abilities of the free Safety Equity Program aren’t limited to emergency drills; the platform provides emergency operations plans, assessments, visitor management, community resources, family reunification plans, emergency training, incident response planning and more. Having these resources at-the-ready allows communication within a school’s daily operations to flourish.

The Next Step, Upgrading the Safety Equity Program

The Safety Equity Program provides a foundation for collaboration and actionable communication in the KnowWhat REM Pro Level. Where the free version allows access to one administrator, the Pro Level allows unlimited admin access to as many users as a school sees fit. Developing school-specific information, assessments and Emergency Operations Plans on the free version will make collaboration with a school’s staff easier, as this information stays relatively constant - having this information established before other users join in on the KnowWhat Pro Level will make the onboarding process fluid and intelligible. Drift Net supports this program with the expressed interest that all schools in the country will have this baseline support. 

Jacob Lasswell has been writing for Drift Net for over three years, bringing much-needed exposure to the reality of mass violence in the United States. Engaging with the nation’s security and violence prevention thought-leaders, Jacob brings the perspectives of the victims and onlookers of mass violence to the forefront, with an emphasis of finding solutions.