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Safe School Ambassadors
Safe School Ambassadors is a best practice program developed by Community Matters.
Diverse Youth attend a 2-day training to gain the necessary skills to become Ambassadors.
Students are able to intervene on the spot when potentially hurtful situations develop. The program empowers youth to observe, communicate, negotiate, and refer incidents of cruelty and bullying acts. Peers can intervene to prevent and stop acts of violence.
Orange County has implemented this youth development program model in several schools:
The successes of this program are overwhelming!
In just a four-month time span (March-June, 2005), one local school reported having over 100 interventions for types of violence including exclusion, put-downs, bullying, physical violence, and campus violence. At another local school, ambassadors reported feeling very safe at their school as a result of this program and they also reported that the amount of bullying and fighting is much better than before the program was implemented. One of the Family Group Facilitators said, “the biggest change at the school since implementing Safe School Ambassadors is the feeling of tolerance when it comes to the differences among students.”
For information about bringing this great initiative into other schools in Orange County, and the possibility of assistance with start-up funds, please contact the Youth Bureau at 845-615-3620 or youthbur@co.orange.ny.us.
For more general information go to www.community-matters.org
 
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Monroe - Woodbury MS & HS