About the CSES - Mission

“Bridges of Hope for a More Humane Society”

The Coalition for Safe and Effective Schools, Inc. (CSES) is a nonprofit organization committed to fostering safe, supportive, and exemplary learning environments for a diverse population of students and educators.  We are dedicated to uniting community, governmental, business and educational organizations in a common effort to reduce violence, encourage understanding, and promote civic responsibility without sacrificing fundamental principles of democracy.

The CSES promotes networks of free expression among organizations and their members in order to share and learn from each other. Diverse perspectives, experiences, and opinions are the core of CSES.  As such, these opinions, values, and beliefs of participants do not necessarily reflect the opinion of CSES. 

The rationale for forming the CSES is simple:  facilitating the cooperative support and work of national organizations that desire safer and healthier communities can reduce intense problems and unhealthy conditions.  By gathering the skills and resources of diverse national organizations, by sharing knowledge of best practices, and by advocating for the resources necessary to support safe and effective learning environments for all, the CSES intends to help create bridges of hope for a more humane society.

Several areas of attention currently command the concern of CSES – gangs and group-based violence; immigration and education; sexual assault and harassment; youth who are expelled, suspended, or who drop out of schools; transition from school to careers; suicide contagion; drugs and alcohol abuse; ethnic, racial, and cultural conflict; teenage parenthood; unhealthy lifestyles; and diseases.  Each area, while overlapping with the others, requires an intentional collaborative effort among organizations.  The CSES’ current agenda includes:
 
• offering assistance in sharing information about programs that reduce violence and aid survivors
• establishing linkages across communities and assisting organizations in the implementation of effective programs
• encouraging the development of materials for use by organizations, the media, schools, and colleges for changing attitudes, behaviors, and policies which sustain violence and intolerance
• promoting the wise investment of public and private funds to foster safe and healthy learning environments

The CES welcomes membership without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, sex or sexual orientation, age, or nationality.  We call upon many voices to articulate a common message – we must place our children at the center of all that we do.  Out strategy is collaboration that embraces diversity.  Our hope and our belief is that safe and effective learning environments are the foundation of a civil society.