Why Collective Impact Is ZeroNow's Reason for Being
By Dr. Lewis A. Eakins, PhD, CPP
Board of Directors, ZeroNow
ZeroNow was founded on a single conviction: harmful events in our schools can be brought to zero, but no one organization, discipline, or sector can get there alone. From our beginning, we have brought together people who do not always sit at the same table. That includes educators and administrators, law enforcement and school safety directors, mental health professionals, architects and facility planners, technology innovators, and families who have lived the consequences of school violence. As a national nonprofit think tank, our work is to connect these perspectives, turn shared experience into practical guidance, and put that guidance in the hands of the people responsible for keeping students safe.
Collective impact is not a slogan for us; it is how we operate. Our National Roundtables, Expert Panel Discussions, Zero-In Insights whitepapers, and Path to Safer Schools framework are all built the same way. We draw on the knowledge of practitioners across disciplines and then distill it into guidance a school leader can act on. We have learned that the most effective safety programs are not defined by a single product, policy, or plan. They start with strong foundational practices and add layers that work together, aligning people, processes, and technology around each school's own risks.
That is why ZeroNow serves on the editorial board of School Safety Quarterly. School leaders today face a flood of recommendations, often conflicting and frequently driven by the most recent headline. What they need is a trusted, freely available source of guidance that reflects consensus rather than any single point of view. The Journal gives us that. Each partner organization brings its own expertise, and every piece is reviewed by leaders who understand how one element of school safety affects all the others. Our role on the board is to bring the cross-sector view that ZeroNow was created to provide. We help make sure the guidance reflects the combined wisdom of education, public safety, and industry, and that it stays grounded in what actually works in real schools.
We believe every student deserves to learn, and every educator deserves to teach, in an environment that is safe, secure, and welcoming. We joined this editorial board because the Journal embodies the principle ZeroNow was built on: when mission-aligned organizations learn together, align their efforts, and hold one another accountable, schools become safer fot good.
