Proposed, for board reviewFirst 90 days (by January 20, 2027)
Join what exists and claim only two jobs
In the first 90 days, ask to become a partner of the Safe Schools Alliance and a member of the Central Oregon Suicide Prevention Alliance, lend volunteers to the gatherings and trainings already running, help the High Desert Education Service District (the regional agency that supports all six school districts) complete a per-school inventory of what each school already has, and publicly claim only the two jobs no one else is organized to do: a clinician roster with fast first appointments and gun-owner-led storage outreach outside Bend.
Central Oregon does not lack coalitions; it lacks a group willing to do two specific jobs inside them. The Safe Schools Alliance, formed in 1998, brings every district, the three sheriffs’ offices, district attorneys, juvenile justice, child welfare, police and fire together under an annual written agreement. The Central Oregon Suicide Prevention Alliance runs S.A.F.E., a free lockbox program that has already put more than 1,700 lockboxes into homes across the three counties. This fall the county, St. Charles and Bend-La Pine Schools have opened free walk-in community support gatherings, and the Oregon Community Foundation’s rapid response fund is taking donations. A new organization that launches parallel vigils, funds or trainings would compete for the same volunteers, donors and agency staff.
Programs that have lasted elsewhere tend to work inside institutions rather than beside them; Colorado’s Safe2Tell tip line, launched in 2004, now operates inside the state Attorney General’s office. Attention and funding tend to fade between high-profile events, so the durable move is to secure standing seats and signed roles while attention is high. The regional school safety team’s public roster names two people, so the most useful early gift is information and hands: a per-school inventory of named threat assessment (Level 1) teams, contacts for SafeOregon, the state school safety tip line, peer programs, staff trained to notice warning signs and ask directly, and school-based health centers, commissioned by superintendents through the ESD so it is a partner’s tool and never an audit.
The two things no existing body is organized to do are a clinician roster with fast first appointments and gun-owner-led storage outreach outside Bend. We propose to claim those two, put them in the bylaws, and lend volunteers to everything else.
Why we think it works
- The Safe Schools Alliance originated in 1998 after the Thurston High School shooting and now spans Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties. At its annual signing event, leaders sign a new written agreement, a memorandum of understanding, to address youth violence prevention; agencies invited include six school districts (Bend-La Pine, Crook County, Culver, Jefferson County, Redmond and Sisters), the three county sheriffs' offices, district attorneys, juvenile justice, child welfare, and local police and fire agencies. (Central Oregon leaders to reaffirm commitment to school safety at annual Safe Schools A..., strong evidence)
- S.A.F.E., the alliance's free lockbox program, distributed more than 1,700 lockboxes across Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties in 2024 and 2025. (Deschutes County news release, New report highlights early success of S.A.F.E. initiati..., strong evidence)
- Deschutes County Health Services, St. Charles Health System and Bend-La Pine Schools hosted free walk-in community support gatherings on October 20 and 21, 2026, and the Oregon Community Foundation's Rapid Response Fund is accepting donations for response and recovery. (Community Support Resources, City of Bend, strong evidence)
- The regional school safety team's public roster names two people, a director of safety and response and a safety and prevention specialist (page checked October 20, 2026). (Meet the team, Central Oregon School Safety, moderate evidence)
- Safe2Tell was launched in 2004 and now operates under the Colorado Attorney General's Office. (Safe2Tell continues to make an impact 20 years on (CU Boulder), moderate evidence)
What we would do
- Within two weeks ask the ESD's Director of Safety and Response for partner status in the Safe Schools Alliance (no signature line in year one; earn it by doing the two jobs) and ask the Deschutes County suicide prevention program for membership in the suicide prevention alliance and a seat on its community outreach work group; attend the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide fall meeting at the Riverhouse in Bend on October 22, 2026.
- Send a one-page letter to Deschutes County Health Services, St. Charles and Bend-La Pine Schools offering volunteers, venues and outlying-town logistics for the existing healing gatherings rather than hosting separate ones; point recovery gifts to the funds already open and route any volunteer in a student-facing role through the host's own clearance and grief training from Partners In Care, the local hospice.
- Ask each of the six superintendents and Warm Springs K-8 Academy leadership for one 30-minute listening meeting with one question: what would you accept help with this year? Record the answers, including no, and accept a delegate.
- Ask superintendents to commission, through the ESD, a one-page per-school inventory (threat assessment (Level 1) team named and trained; SafeOregon point of contact; peer program; count of staff trained to notice warning signs and ask directly; school-based health center; counselor ratio); the founders' teacher and counselor network would fill it, the data would stay with the ESD, and only regional counts would leave the building; campus firearm policy stays off the inventory.
- Publish a one-page who-does-what map (Safe Schools Alliance, the suicide prevention alliance and S.A.F.E., the county's critical incident debriefing team, the Care Solace care-finding service, school-based health centers, grief partners) only after each named agency has approved its own line, and name the two gaps the group would fill.
- Adopt Respite Ready, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Ending the Silence program and SafeOregon point-of-contact training as the first trainings the group promotes, and commit publicly to no new curriculum in year one; put the two claimed jobs in the bylaws and the identity statement.
How we would know it is working
- Safe Schools Alliance partner status and suicide prevention alliance membership requested within 30 days; status reported
- Inventory commissioned through the ESD by day 90; share of schools completed reported quarterly; gap list adopted by the board
- Number of existing gatherings and trainings staffed with the group's volunteers each quarter
- Partnership map published after each named agency approves its own line; districts and the county asked to link to it, with links reported
- Zero events in year one that duplicate a county, district or alliance event
What could get in the way
- The Safe Schools Alliance agreement is among public agencies; a signature line for a new nonprofit changes its character, and existing members decide who joins.
- Ask for partner status without a signature line in year one and earn the line by doing the two jobs.
- Teachers reporting their school's readiness to an outside group is a staff conduct issue, and a list of schools without trained teams is a liability roadmap and, if public, a target list.
- Superintendents would commission the inventory through the ESD, the group would fund and help staff it, the data would stay with the ESD, and only regional counts would leave; nothing would be published without district sign-off.
- Gun-owner-led storage outreach run through a county suicide prevention body is a health department program with a hunter's face.
- The Oregon Hunters Association chapters and the Redmond Rod and Gun Club would own the outreach and the tables; S.A.F.E. would supply the devices and get the credit for the supply; the group would supply labor and money.
- A group that claims only two jobs can still be dragged into a third by the loudest donor, or dissolve into existing bodies without a visible identity.
- Put the two jobs in the bylaws and the identity statement, let the gun-owner council hold the line, and credit partners first in every message.
Who we would work with: High Desert Education Service District Safe Schools Alliance and Safety and Response team, Central Oregon Suicide Prevention Alliance and Deschutes County Suicide Prevention Program, Deschutes County Health Services critical incident debriefing (CISM) program, St. Charles Health System, Bend-La Pine, Redmond, Sisters, Crook County, Jefferson County 509J and Culver school districts, Warm Springs K-8 Academy leadership, NAMI Central Oregon (National Alliance on Mental Illness), Partners In Care, Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide