My career spans more than 20 years working with children and adolescents in education and nonprofits. Since joining Sandy Hook Promise in 2022, my focus has been to develop and implement high-impact school safety initiatives and violence prevention programs. This work has given me a profound insight: true school safety requires a holistic approach, extending well beyond the school grounds.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, in Kibera and Mathare, Africa's largest slums and home to some young men and women whose world is riddled with painfully common gang and sexual violence. It's a constant struggle to access clean water, find toilets. Their families live on next to nothing, but if a student here wants to go to secondary school, the government requires they pay school fees.