Community & care
Prevention - Violence & School Safety
Say It With Music helps schools strengthen school climate and connectedness through Music STEAM Recording & Team Building Programs and our interactive Psychological Effects of Music SEL books and assemblies that build communication, conflict-resolution, and relationship skills, giving students positive ways to connect, collaborate, and belong. The SEL assemblies have been described as fun AND life-changing and transformational. Many directors use the Music STEAM Recording & Team Building Programs to create a song and music video for violence prevention campaigns.
Potential funding pathways may include U.S. Department of Justice STOP School Violence-related funding, OJJDP youth violence prevention funding, CDC violence prevention funding, and Title IV-A safe-and-healthy-students activities.
FAQs
Straight answers.
Schools and districts searching for school-based violence prevention programs, violence prevention programs for youth, and school safety programs for students frequently look for engaging ways to build student connectedness and positive school climate alongside their safety and intervention systems. Say It With Music supports violence prevention and school safety by using music and SEL — through SEL School Assemblies, Music STEAM Recording Programs, and SEL supplemental books — to strengthen protective factors such as belonging, communication, conflict-resolution skills, and positive peer relationships. SIWM does not replace school security, threat assessment, emergency planning, mental-health intervention, or evidence-based violence-intervention programs; it is a supplemental youth-engagement resource that complements those systems and reinforces the student connectedness and social-emotional skills associated with safer, more positive school environments.
SIWM offers interactive SEL School Assemblies, Music STEAM Recording & Music Video Programs, and Psychological Effects of Music SEL supplemental books that schools can incorporate into a broader school violence prevention and school safety strategy. These resources engage students in creative expression, communication, and reflection that reinforce connectedness and conflict-resolution skills, complementing — not replacing — a school’s safety, security, and intervention measures.
SIWM supports violence prevention by strengthening protective factors — belonging, positive relationships, communication, and healthy self-expression — that research associates with positive school climate. The programming creates opportunities for discussion and reflection and provides an alternative approach to engaging students, complementing existing violence-reduction and school-safety efforts.
No. SIWM does not replace or perform school security, threat assessment, emergency planning, or professional violence-intervention services. It is a supplemental engagement and SEL resource that works alongside those essential systems.
If you’re looking for positive school climate ideas, positive school climate activities, or bullying prevention month ideas, Say It With Music’s SEL School Assemblies and Music STEAM Programs provide belonging activities for students, leadership activities for students, and school team-building activities for students. SIWM can serve as an anti-bullying speaker for elementary schools and provide assembly ideas for high school and elementary school assembly ideas that build connectedness — plus self-control activities for high school students — reinforcing the positive school climate that supports violence prevention. (For MLK Day, Black History Month, and other cultural-heritage assemblies, see Section 7 — SEL & Cultural Heritage Assemblies.)
Music gives students a constructive channel for expression and a shared, collaborative goal. In SIWM’s Music STEAM Recording Programs, students create songs and videos together, building teamwork and communication while opening conversations about conflict, choices, and community — an engaging complement to school-based violence prevention activities.
Activities include collaborative songwriting, recording, music-video production, audio engineering, and team performance, paired with structured reflection on communication, teamwork, and positive relationships. These activities support student engagement and connectedness, which are protective factors in violence prevention.
The Psychological Effects of Music books reinforce self-awareness, emotional regulation, and social awareness — skills associated with conflict resolution and healthy relationships. Schools can use them as a supplemental SEL resource alongside bullying-prevention and violence-prevention curricula.
Yes. SIWM programming can be tailored for middle school and high school students and delivered schoolwide (via assemblies) or in smaller groups (via recording programs), in person or virtually.
Yes. Community organizations, afterschool programs, and youth-violence-intervention initiatives can use SIWM programming for youth engagement and positive youth development, complementing community violence prevention efforts.
Organizations commonly investigate STOP School Violence Act grants (administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, through the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the COPS Office), OJJDP youth-violence and gang-prevention funding, CDC youth-violence-prevention funding, and education funds such as Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment) for safe-and-healthy-students activities. Some communities also use community violence intervention (CVI) funding. These are potential categories; allowable uses vary and must be confirmed.
STOP School Violence grants generally go to states, school districts, and law-enforcement or nonprofit partners for evidence-based safety and climate improvements. OJJDP funding generally goes to states, units of local government, and nonprofits for youth-violence and delinquency prevention. An organization would ask the grantee or fiscal agent whether a supplemental student-engagement and SEL resource is an allowable, evidence-informed activity under the specific award before assuming SIWM can be funded through it.
How this program runs
Same SIWM work. Built for Prevention.
Start with the social emotional learning books. Add a keynote. Bring a recording program when you want participants writing and performing — we produce the song and video.
Aligned with prevention priorities by strengthening protective factors, positive decision-making, healthy coping and peer connection. Youth use music and media to develop prevention messages while building SEL, leadership, resilience and community awareness. CASEL 5 SEL competencies; SAMHSA prevention framework & protective factors; trauma-informed, strengths-based practice; National Core Arts (Music/Media Arts).
Send a request and tell us this is a Prevention site.
The Psychological Effects of Music
SEL books & curriculum
SEL books by Ava Johnson plus keynotes for the same rooms.
Ava the Aviator
Keynotes & assemblies
Interactive talks on the science of sound and the psychology of music.
The studio
Recording & music video program
Participants write and perform. We record, produce, and film.