In this article, the author talks about "Safe Space," an after school program created by a parent-teacher advisory board which maintained that students needed a safe in-school environment where they could openly talk about their out-of-school lives. Being that the school's curriculum heavily focused on academic standards, students' affective issues went largely unaddressed. Thus, Safe Space was initiated to bring a balance to school life by engaging young people in open dialogue around school and community issues that personally concerned them (e.g., college and career preparation, teacher bias, bullying, gang recruitment, racial profiling, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence). Here, the author describes his experience in Safe Space and how the program provided a point of departure for imagining and perceiving genuine school democracy as something comprising a collective voice--educators, students, and families working in partnership to create what is valued and needed within a particular cultural community and context.