Our mission is to prevent harm by addressing the interconnected nature of all forms of harm while prioritizing human connection to foster a society where everyone is valued.
Multidisciplinary research and expertise tell us that individuals who exhibit higher levels of Emotional Agility, Accountability, Belonging, and Gratitude will do less harm to themselves and to others. Our methodology nurtures tangible skills in students that help lead to greater outcomes of these four pillars. These are the pillars on which significance and belonging will flourish and healthy relationships form.
Our four-pronged approach weaves together research from various disciplines to prevent both perpetration and victimization. Nest’s methods revolutionizes violence prevention curricula by incorporating essential skill-building components such as bystander intervention, apology, accountability, and navigating ending, providing a comprehensive solution to the complex and systematic issue of violence.
What if we had a culture of connected humans, who felt invested in building compassionate communities?
At the core of our work is Belonging. Feeling a sense of belonging ties directly to enacting less harm. Our services nurture belonging by building up personal and interpersonal skills. Everyday skills such as comfort in talking about negative experiences and intervening in healthier ways, will naturally reduce the risk of harm.
We know that a victim-centered approach means leading with compassion–instead of enacting further trauma. We want survivors of harm to be empowered to make the choices that are right for them. In action, this looks like training educators how to respond compassionately systems that aid teachers in respondiinstitutional response to be victimcentered
Our curricula educate with a strengths-based approach. Rather than scaring students or telling them what not to do, we lead with the knowledge that’s already in the room. Research shows that helping children develop emotional health and wellbeing skills protects them from both violence and its negative effects. These skills can help the brain develop agility, even when facing trauma and adversity. This type of intervention is more effective the younger the kids start!
Using research-proven methods, we work to expand our culture’s understanding of harm's impact on individuals and communities. We do this by: Providing resources to communities and stakeholders
Strengthening support systems
Increasing Protective Factors
We need solutions that work at scale, while also adjusting to meet the needs of different stakeholders. To meet this need, we have created a toolkit that will help policy-makers, law enforcement officials, school districts, and communities.
Since 2004, Nest has been on the front lines of addressing the vulnerabilities that expose young people to harm & exploitation. In 2009, Nest premiered Playground, the first feature-length film about child sex trafficking in America, produced by Abigail Disney & George Clooney. The film was central to changing federal legislation that had previously treated trafficked children as criminals rather than victims. This was the genesis of Nest's transformative approach.
Our dedication to following research-proven solutions is seen not only in our work but also our history, as we have evolved through the years to better address our goal of ending violence.
In 2009, we premiered Playground, the first feature-length film about child sex trafficking in America, produced by Abigail Disney,George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh and Lauren Embrey.
In 2014, building off of what we learned in filming Playground, we wrote a curriculum to prevent sexual violence through teaching students about healthy relationships and sex trafficking.
After continuous research and expanding our board of expert advisors, we dove deep into the issue of not just sexual violence but all forms of violence. It became clear that the root causes of all types of harm overlap, inspiring us to create the first curricula to address the interconnectedness of all forms of violence.