Rachel's Challenge: Restoring Hope Through Connection

Rachel’s Challenge envisions schools full of hope, free from harassment, violence, and self-harm, where teachers are free to teach and students are inspired to learn.

Rachel’s Challenge brings people together. We help break down the walls that lead to harassment, isolation, teen suicide and gun violence. Our programs are a catalyst that stimulates connection and hope, invites personal reflection, and ignites change. When people feel that they are not alone, individuals – and communities – are transformed. We see it happening in culturally diverse schools around the world every day.

Our Story: Transforming a Tragedy

Rachel’s Challenge was created after the Columbine High School shooting, in honor of Rachel Scott and the other victims lost on that terrible day. As the first widely known mass school shooting, the Columbine tragedy was a catalyst for action for many people.

After Rachel’s death, her family discovered that she left behind a legacy of kindness and compassion – through her life, her writings, and the people she had reached out to. One after another, stories emerged about the profound impact of her simple acts of kindness.

Her family soon realized that Rachel’s story could help transform the way we relate to each other, and how we feel about ourselves. It provides an antidote: a path to ending school violence, bullying, self-harm and suicide. How? By creating positive connections that improve self-worth and mental health. Rachel’s dad, Darrell Scott, was asked to talk about Rachel so often that he and Rachel’s step-mom Sandy started a non-profit organization for school violence prevention that is Rachel’s Challenge today.