• To create two child-friendly demonstration schools whose experience other schools can replicate.

Raising Voices is committed to working with schools to implement long-term, well-developed holistic strategies aimed at creating a safer school experience. The Safer Schools Pilot Project was developed to prevent violence against children within the school context and to foster a safe, healthy and imaginative learning environment for all.

Raising Voices partnered with two pilot schools, with the intention of working side-by-side with them to implement and experiment with new ideas about how a safer school might look and work.  The project was designed with five components of a safer school in mind:

1. Healthy, respectful relationships between teachers and students;
2. Student voice that is recognized and listened to;
3. Non-violent forms of discipline;
4. A safe and conducive environment.
5. Written policies that are implemented

The project is aimed at working with schools to achieve these objectives through a holistic process that engages students, teachers, administration, parents and the community. The two partner schools have committed to creating a zero-tolerance policy on corporal punishment. They have also committed to re-think how their children are disciplined, and to revise appropriate rules and regulations. In addition, they are working towards a safer environment, healthier relationships between students and teachers and more creative teaching methods. Raising Voices is also developing the capacity of teachers to interact with children in a child-centric manner and is developing the capacity of children to plan, think and create for themselves.