Sandy Hook Promise

🌱 Organization: Sandy Hook Promise
📍 Based in: Newtown, Connecticut
💰 Annual Budget: ~$25 million
🚀 Founded: 2013
🎯 Mission: Prevent school shootings and youth violence before they happen
🌐 Website: sandyhookpromise.org

What it does
Sandy Hook Promise helps stop school shootings by teaching students and school staff how to recognize warning signs—like threats, social withdrawal, or talk of self-harm—and how to take action before it's too late. Their free programs include Start With Hello (helping isolated students feel included), Say Something (training students to report warning signs to trusted adults), and a 24/7 anonymous reporting system. These tools are used in over 24,000 schools and have directly prevented planned shootings, suicides, and other violent acts.

Why it matters
Most school shootings are preventable—if warning signs are noticed and acted on. Sandy Hook Promise focuses on upstream prevention, empowering students to protect each other. It’s one of the few models that’s both scalable and already saving lives. The goal: Make these prevention programs a standard part of every U.S. school, so every student learns how to look out for their peers—and every school can stop violence before it happens.

The person behind it
This work is driven by Nicole Hockley, who lost her son Dylan in the Sandy Hook shooting. Her leadership brings both moral clarity and relentless focus to the mission: stopping school shootings so no other parent has to experience what she did.

The bigger picture
Ending youth gun violence will take more than laws or after-the-fact responses. Sandy Hook Promise brings something different: a practical, nationwide strategy for stopping violence before it starts, rooted in school culture and student action.

It’s one essential part of a broader solution—alongside smarter gun laws, mental health care, and community support—each doing its part to protect kids and prevent tragedy.