STAND Burleson Safety Summit: Stand Together. Stand Prepared.

On Saturday, May 2, Burleson will host something far bigger than a one-day event. The STAND Safety Summit is being built as a serious investment in prevention, education, and community resilience. STAND, which stands for Safety, Technology, Awareness, Narcotics, and Defense, is designed to bring families, professionals, educators, first responders, faith leaders, and community partners into one room to confront some of the most urgent safety issues facing our cities today.

In a time when communities are navigating increasingly complex threats, from online exploitation and digital deception to narcotics, domestic violence, human trafficking, and mental health struggles, the need for practical, proactive education has never been greater. Too often, communities only gather after tragedy. The purpose of STAND is to gather before it happens, while there is still time to equip people with the knowledge, tools, and partnerships needed to protect lives.

That is what makes this summit so important. It is not simply another conference. It is a deliberate effort by the Burleson Police Department and its partners to create a public safety experience that is wide-ranging, relevant, and deeply rooted in real-world issues affecting everyday people. While law enforcement agencies regularly host training events for officers or professionals, a summit of this kind, one that intentionally blends public education, prevention, survivor-informed insight, community outreach, and expert-led discussion under one roof, is rare. In that sense, STAND is helping model what modern public safety engagement can look like.

On Saturday, May 2, 2026, Burleson will host something far bigger than a one-day event. The STAND Safety Summit is being built as a serious investment in prevention, education, and community resilience.

The reality is that today’s dangers do not stay neatly in one category. A child’s smartphone can become the doorway to sextortion, cyberbullying, exploitation, or predatory grooming. A narcotics issue may intersect with mental health, family crisis, or victimization. Domestic violence often remains hidden behind closed doors until it escalates into serious injury or death. Human trafficking can begin online and move silently through channels most parents never think to monitor. Communities need more than awareness slogans. They need clear information from credible voices, delivered in a way that helps ordinary people recognize warning signs and act early.

That is exactly what STAND aims to provide.

The summit will feature speakers and presenters who bring a powerful mix of professional expertise, lived experience, and practical guidance. Attendees will not just hear broad ideas. They will leave with real insight into the threats facing children, teens, families, schools, businesses, churches, and neighborhoods, along with strategies they can immediately put into practice. The impact of that kind of information cannot be overstated. When parents better understand online risks, they are more likely to intervene before a child is exploited. When educators and ministry leaders recognize the signs of abuse, they are better prepared to protect vulnerable people in their care. When community members learn how to identify deception, coercion, addiction, or dangerous relationship patterns, the ripple effect can touch an entire city.

One of the most significant guest speakers scheduled for the summit is Jim Schmidt. His presence gives this event a weight and national relevance that few local conferences attain.

Jim Schmidt is the stepfather of Gabby Petito and a co-founder of the Gabby Petito Foundation, which was launched after Gabby’s 2021 murder drew national attention and sparked widespread conversations about domestic violence, missing persons, and missed warning signs. In the years since that tragedy, Schmidt and Gabby’s family have transformed unimaginable grief into a mission of prevention, awareness, and reform through public speaking, advocacy, and survivor-centered education.

Schmidt is not simply a family member connected to a well-known case. He is also a longtime fire service professional who has become a respected voice in training first responders to better recognize the often-unseen indicators of domestic violence. His work has focused on helping firefighters, EMS personnel, and other frontline responders understand victim fear, coercive control, trauma-informed response, and warning signs that are too often missed in abuse cases.

His relevance as a guest speaker is immediate and profound. Jim Schmidt speaks from the intersection of personal loss and professional responsibility. He understands what happens when warning signs are overlooked, when systems fail to connect the dots, and when people do not yet know what questions to ask. But he also speaks with purpose, offering a path forward. His message is not rooted only in tragedy, it is rooted in transformation. That is exactly the kind of voice a summit like STAND needs. For Burleson, having someone of his profile and lived credibility speak into the issue of domestic violence and prevention sends a clear message that this community is serious about confronting hard realities and learning from those who have turned pain into advocacy.

And Jim Schmidt is only one part of the larger picture. The full strength of STAND is found in its lineup of voices and topics. This summit is being designed so that attendees hear from individuals who understand the modern safety landscape from multiple angles, law enforcement, survivor advocacy, technology awareness, mental health, narcotics education, and community defense. That approach matters because the strongest communities are not built by one agency working alone. They are built when police, parents, schools, nonprofits, faith communities, medical professionals, and local leaders begin speaking the same language of prevention.

That is why STAND has the potential to leave a lasting mark on Burleson. The summit is not only about what happens inside the venue for one day. It is about what attendees carry back into their homes, classrooms, churches, workplaces, and neighborhoods afterward. A single conversation can change how a parent monitors a child’s phone. A single presentation can help someone recognize abuse. A single story can give a victim the courage to ask for help. A single partnership formed at this summit could lead to better protection, better policies, and better outcomes for families across this community.

The STAND Safety Summit reflects a simple but powerful truth, public safety is no longer just about response. It is about readiness, awareness, prevention, and connection. The Burleson Police Department is stepping into that space in a bold way. In doing so, it is not just hosting an event. It is helping build a safer, stronger, and more informed community.