Empowering youth to prevent gun violence
Gun violence is not a global problem. It’s an American problem.
How will we solve it?
PLEDGE is the only initiative focused on using education in classrooms to reduce gun violence affecting America’s children. Our non-partisan, evidence-based curriculum empowers schools and communities with practical solutions to keep kids safe at home and beyond.
What makes PLEDGE different?
Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children in America, surpassing car accidents and childhood cancer.
We believe pediatric gun violence is a preventable public health crisis. By treating it like diseases, we measure, test, and scale educational interventions that work.
We treat gun violence like a public health crisis.
Our educational programs are grounded in research and modeled after other proven, successful responses to public health crises.
We’re non-partisan.
We don’t take sides. We focus on solutions. We bring communities together around a shared goal: protecting children from preventable firearm injuries and deaths.
We listen to communities.
Our programs are built with input from parents, educators, students, law enforcement, health care practitioners, and gun owners, so they’re practical and effective.
We educate to prevent.
We believe education changes behavior. Our educational programs are grounded in research and modeled after other proven responses to public health crises.
We address an overlooked risk.
Research reveals an invisible crisis of mass shootings affecting children at home. Our education-based approach equips kids to be safer no matter where they go.
We empower youth to act.
Our curriculum gives students the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions, advocate for safe practices, and influence their peers and families.
"Now, using what I’ve gleaned from research, I’ve taken the liberty to integrate the first chapter of PLEDGE at my high school, where my peers now feel inclined to learn about the corrosive nature of pediatric firearm deaths and how to prevent them.
Together a world without youth-based gun violence can be our reality!”
— Samuel Awujoola, Former PLEDGE Intern
Our community partners
American Pediatric Association
American Foundation
for Firearm Injury
Reduction in Medicine
(AFFIRM): Aspen
Institute
Medical College of
Wisconsin’s
Comprehensive Injury
Center
Milwaukee Fire
Department
Milwaukee Police
Department
Milwaukee Public
School District
Oakland’s Youth ALIVE
Office of the Superintendent of
Schools, San Mateo
County Office of
Education
San Joaquin A+
Scrubs Addressing
the Firearm Epidemic (SAFE)
San Francisco Probation
Officer’s Association
(SIEU 1021)
Stanford Graduate School of Education
Voices for a Safer
Tennessee
Western Pediatric
Trauma Consortium
Sign up for a PLEDGE focus group.
Would you like to participate in our current focus groups? We’re seeking participants from the following groups:
Parents of school-age children (grades K-12)
Teachers (grades K-12)
High school students (grades 9-12
Click below to register.