This blog post discusses the School Solutions Network and our plan for spreading situational awareness and kindness across the country in 2018 starting in Central Ohio this February at Dublin Retirement Village.
Shortly after the events at Columbine High School took place back in 1999, Mike MacLeod thought up the idea of integrating disparate systems onto one universal alerting platform to provide situational awareness. Mike knew technology could help prevent tragedies and when the World Trade Center was attacked in 2001 he decided he had enough and launched Status Solutions. Since 2001, Status Solutions has successfully provided situational awareness solutions to all types of businesses across North America for healthcare, hospitality, education, senior living, manufacturing and government. Unfortunately, our team was confronted by barriers in one vertical that needed us the most, K-12 schools. Time and time again educators would express interest in our solutions but did not have the necessary funding to cover the cost of a robust system. We believe that schools should not have to pay to be protected so we went back to the drawing board and thought up a new way to help provide technology to schools without asking them to pay for it. We realized that we needed to help schools tackle their exhaustive list of needs by integrating their existing resources and streamlining communication, thus, the School Solutions Network was born.
School Solutions Network is Status Solutions’ social enterprise that strengthens schools by leveraging innovative technology, education, expert counsel and community resources.
When connected, schools and communities can elevate one another by raising awareness, fostering safety and cultivating pride in our school districts. Participants of the School Solutions Network receive Status Solutions’Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA), an automated alerting engine that integrates stand-alone alarms and communication systems for centralized monitoring, alerting and reporting.
Over the past year the School Solutions Network has started community engagement initiatives in dozens of Central Ohio towns in order to create an eco-system of mutual benefit and ultimately help the local school system. During this time we have learned that every community is different and therefore requires a customized approach that utilizes the city’s existing resources. Every business and non-profit organization has something unique that they bring to the table but they often operate within their own silo of influence. Our goal is to turn siloes into streams so that these organizations can coordinate and therefore operate at the highest capacity.
The first step is to bring all of these community stakeholders together to collaborate on a common goal.
School Solutions Network will be traveling the country in order to plan these initial gatherings; we will facilitate a ‘meeting of the minds’ by finding a location and inviting all of the necessary community stakeholders. It is our hope to host these meetings at a local senior living facility because it’s a great way to make sure our aging population is involved in positively impacting their hometown.
During this meeting each community stakeholder will learn what their role is in helping to create the eco-system of mutual benefit. We will talk about how to utilize our kindness engine partner, neighborhood bridges, our intergenerational engagement programming ideas, and our community wide communication platform, CATIE. This program provides situational awareness technology at no cost to the local school district so we will also spend some time explaining how schools can take advantage of this offer. Regardless, there is something in it for everyone and it is our hope that every community creates their own eco-system of mutual benefit with our help.
School Solutions Network is dedicated to serving local school districts through an educational community-based program; whether it’s sourcing donated supplies or funds for new technology, the Network provides a direct line of communication between schools and communities—including local law enforcement, merchants and non-profits—to utilize the resources and alleviate the needs of both groups.
This may sound like a daunting task, but we have spent two years working with different communities and know we are up for the challenge. The School Solutions Network will do all of the grunt work we just ask that you join us and let us help.
As Dr. Brene Brown would say, “Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.”
We have been working fast and steady in several Central Ohio communities but now it is our responsibility to take our work nationwide. Starting next month we will be hitting the road to bring the School Solutions Network to as many communities as possible. We will be starting our journey close to home at Dublin Retirement Village located at 6470 Post Road, Dublin, Ohio 43016 to make sure all of our wonderful local partners continue to thrive in 2018, our work is far from over. The coffee and brunch event will take place on Tuesday, February 6th from 11:00am-12:30pm. We encourage all community members to attend this event to learn what role you play in contributing to our own eco-system of mutual benefit. Whether you’re a young professional, educator, parent, police officer, business owner or community member; there is something all of us can do to improve the world we live in.
