Be The Light Project
At Love and Mercy Project, we believe every child deserves a chance to thrive and to feel safe at school, at home, and online. Yet too many young people in California carry burdens no child should bear: the fear of violence, the pain of bullying, and the pressures of growing up in a digital world. Be The Light Project was created to meet these students where they are, surrounding them with caring adults, practical skills, and the support they need to move from conflict toward peace.
A Light in California's Schools
Be The Light Project is a community-based violence prevention program that partners with schools to support students and their families together. Working alongside what schools already offer, the program brings trained counselors, caring mentors, and practical tools to the young people who need them most, especially in communities affected by poverty, trauma, and rising violence. Each partnership unfolds over a 12-week journey that begins with a school-wide gathering to welcome students in, and ends with a celebration of how far they have come.
What We Do
Be The Light walks with students through honest, age-appropriate lessons and one-on-one support that help them feel safe, seen, and capable. Our work includes:
- Skills for Peace: Workshops that help students understand violence, manage strong emotions, and work through conflict calmly and peacefully.
- Standing Up, Not Standing By: Lessons that encourage students to become allies and upstanders, supporting classmates who are bullied rather than looking away.
- Safety in a Digital World: Guidance on navigating social media, cyberbullying, and online dangers with confidence and care for one another.
- Counseling and Healing: Individual and family counseling, offered through supervised partnerships with California universities, for students carrying trauma or facing hardship at home.
- Walking with Families: Workshops, encouragement, and connections to community resources that strengthen parents and caregivers, because lasting change begins at home.
- Care That Welcomes Everyone: Compassionate, faith-informed support, offered with respect for every student and family, regardless of background or belief.
Who We Serve
Be The Light serves students, families, and school communities across California, many of them facing challenges that often go unseen. These are young people navigating anger, conflict, bullying, isolation, or the weight of violence they have witnessed or experienced. They are families doing their best through difficult circumstances, and they are children who, with the right support, can imagine a safer and more hopeful future. Every student is met with dignity, and every family with respect.
Building Safer Communities, One Student at a Time
When a child learns to manage anger, ask for help, and stand up for a friend, the change reaches far beyond a single classroom. Families grow stronger. Schools grow safer. And students discover that they are not alone, that caring adults are in their corner, and that they themselves can be a light for others. This is the heart of Be The Light: not only keeping children safe today, but equipping them to build lives and communities marked by peace, one student at a time.
How You Can Help
Your support brings this work to the students and families who need it most. A gift to Be The Light Project can help provide workshop materials, family support sessions, counseling and supervision, and community events, along with the practical help, like transportation and childcare, that allows families to take part. Whether you give, volunteer as a mentor, or share our mission with others, you help make schools safer and futures brighter.
Be the light for a child who is searching for one.