Safe Passage

Safe Passage is an anti-violence program run through a partnership between Operation Better Block, the City of Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh Public Schools, with funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), Buhl Foundation, and Eden Hall Foundation. Using a public health approach, our goal is to reduce the transmission of the disease of violence among Pittsburgh Public Schools students and their communities.

This is done through training Safe Passage Coordinators (SPCs), Youth Safety Ambassadors (SAs), and Community Stakeholders with the Safe Passage Safety Model. Collectively, they serve as violence interrupters and identify at-risk youth to help them join the peace-keeping solution.

School communities are also connected to important resources ranging from financial support to job searches.

Schools Served

Originally piloted at Perry High School in 2021, the program is also now being implemented at:

Allderdice High School	Brashear High School	Perry High School
Obama Academy 6-12	Milliones UPrep 6-12	Westinghouse High School

 

Rowan University’s Department of Law & Justice Study

Rowan University's Department of Law & Justice Studies received a grant in March of 2026 from the Fund for a Safer Future to conduct a three-year evaluation of the Safe Passage school and community violence prevention program in Pittsburgh. The primary goal of this evaluation is to analyze the specific processes and outcomes that make our model effective in order to replicate it in other school systems. Read more about the study here.

Program Information

• English - Safe Passage Brochure(PDF, 778KB)  
• English - Safe Passage Model(PDF, 100KB)
• Español - Folleto de Paso Seguro (de Safe Passage)(PDF, 783KB)
• Español - Modelo de Paso Seguro (de Safe Passage)(PDF, 79KB)

Newsletter

• January 2026(PDF, 5MB)
• September 2025(PDF, 4MB)
• April 2025(PDF, 2MB)
• January 2025(PDF, 6MB)
• September 2024(PDF, 3MB)
• June 2024(PDF, 3MB)

Safe Passage Team  

• Dr. Danielle King – Director of Safe Passage, Operation Better Block
• Taili Thompson – Director of Violence Prevention, Operation Better Block
• Dr. Nina Sacco – Assistant Superintendent, Pittsburgh Public Schools
• Jason Rivers – School Intervention and Violence Prevention Manager, Pittsburgh Public Schools
• Dena Young – Chief of School Police, Pittsburgh Public Schools
• Michael Boback – Assistant Chief of School Police, Pittsburgh Public Schools
• Takeena White – Assistant Director of Public Safety, City of Pittsburgh
• Kasey Macedo – Safe Passage Program Manager, City of Pittsburgh

 

last updated: 03/12/2026