Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila have launched a new initiative called Greenlights Grant Initiative where it’s goal is to assist in helping American schools become a safer place for children. The initiative plans to help schools take advantage of the funding that goes toward safety measures to protect students against school shootings and other violence that may occur in the classroom. They give schools the resources needed to complete the grant applications that can be costly. In an interview with “Good Morning America,” McConaughey explained that the grant writing process can be “intimidating” and can be very costly. The actor explained that hiring a grant writer can cost up to $50,000, which many “high-risk” schools do not have.

In June 2022, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act just one month after the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas which left 19 students and two teachers dead. The legislation included $1 billion in funding for schools. McConaughey, who grew up in Uvalde, Texas, has continued to speak out against gun violence in schools, making it his mission to make a change. “When Camila and I went to Uvalde, the parents and the family members of the children that were killed asked for one thing: ‘Make their lives matter,’” said McConaughey in an Instagram video. “Let’s make sure that the first bill passed in 28 years to help protect all our children in schools matters.”

In June 2022, before Biden signed the legislation, McConaughey traveled to Washington D.C. to advocate for the families of Uvalde. “There is a difference between control and responsibility,” the actor wrote in an op-ed published in early June 2022. “The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility. Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people is not only the responsible thing to do, it is the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.”