SAFE (Student Attire for Education) is an online school uniform store that BTSCD has operated since 2000, when we assumed operations from the Stardust Companies. It may come as a surprise that a number of Arizona’s Title I schools require their students to wear uniforms. However, research* shows such policies result in decreased bullying, increased safety, and fewer distractions, among other benefits. What people often find more surprising is that these same schools have to maintain onsite clothing closets so they can provide uniforms, underwear, and shoes to their students who often show up in clothes that are too small, to threadbare, or too dirty to be worn.

“It’s hard for us to grasp the need that exists just a few miles in any direction,” says Gerald Wissink CEO of BHHS Legacy Foundation, one of BTSCD’s financial supporters. “Some children have to stay home from school because their families can’t afford clothes. We’ve even heard of cases where kids have to share clothes or shoes, so only one sibling goes to school each day.”

All proceeds from this store help fund our program operations and our “New Clothes, New Beginnings” event.

* School Discipline, School Uniforms and Academic Performance, 2016