The Guidance Center Brings a New Kind of Safety Technology to Behavioral Health

Northwest Pennsylvania nonprofit will use CurvePoint’s Wi-Fi sensing and AI to add a discreet layer of protection at its Bradford facility.

BRADFORD, PA, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — For more than 40 years, The Guidance Center has worked to create safe, supportive spaces for people across Northwest Pennsylvania. Now, the organization is bringing a new kind of safety technology to its own front door.

The Guidance Center will deploy CurvePoint’s Wi-AI Entry Threat Detection at its Bradford facility, adding a new layer of security designed to identify potential firearm threats as they enter a building, including concealed threats, without relying on facial recognition or traditional camera-based surveillance.

The technology comes from Pittsburgh-based CurvePoint, a Carnegie Mellon University spinout that is teaching software to understand what’s happening in physical spaces using Wi-Fi signals and artificial intelligence.

For The Guidance Center, the technology addresses a particularly complicated challenge: How do you make a behavioral-health facility safer without making the people who walk through its doors feel like they’re entering a fortress?

“People come to us because they need support, and maintaining an environment that feels safe, welcoming, and respectful is incredibly important, especially as we expand to add a 24/7 Walk-In Crisis Center,” said Dr. Denise Bean, Executive Director of The Guidance Center.

CurvePoint’s Wi-AI platform works differently from conventional security technology.

Instead of needing to see a potential threat, CurvePoint uses Wi-Fi sensing and purpose-built AI to interpret changes in wireless signals as people and objects move through an entry point. The system detects both concealed and visible firearms and alerts authorized personnel so the organization’s existing safety protocols can begin sooner.

That distinction mattered at The Guidance Center.

As a nonprofit behavioral-health and community-services organization, The Guidance Center serves individuals and families across Northwest Pennsylvania through mental health, crisis, intellectual disability, education, prevention, and family-support programs. The organization employs approximately 200 people and has served the region since 1984.

Its Bradford facility is not simply an office. It is a place people come for help.

“The Guidance Center is exactly the kind of environment CurvePoint was built to serve,” said Skip Smith, CEO and co-founder of CurvePoint. “Safety should strengthen a welcoming environment, not change its character. Our technology adds a discreet, privacy-preserving layer of awareness at the entrance without creating a security checkpoint or treating the people who rely on the center with suspicion. This allows The Guidance Center to enhance safety while preserving the dignity, trust, and human connection at the heart of its mission.”

CurvePoint’s technology grew out of research at Carnegie Mellon University and has already been selected by a growing number of Pennsylvania school systems. The Guidance Center expands that same sensing technology into another kind of shared space where safety, privacy, and trust all matter. The Guidance Center will become CurvePoint’s first behavioral health deployment, marking an important expansion of the Wi-AI platform beyond K-12 education.

CurvePoint’s larger vision extends beyond threat detection. Its sensing intelligence platform is being developed to help software understand activity in physical environments without requiring cameras to constantly watch the people inside them. Potential applications span education, healthcare, senior living, workplaces, campuses, and other shared spaces.

For Smith, The Guidance Center shows why that distinction matters.

“Buildings have traditionally had two choices: know very little about what’s happening inside them, or add more cameras and more surveillance,” Smith said. “Wi-Fi sensing creates a third option. We can give a building greater awareness of what’s happening without requiring it to watch everyone inside.”

About The Guidance Center

Established in 1984, The Guidance Center is a nonprofit community-services organization headquartered in Bradford, Pennsylvania. The organization provides behavioral health, intellectual disability, education, prevention, family support, substance abuse counseling, recovery, and other community-based services to individuals of all ages throughout Northwest Pennsylvania. The Guidance Center is committed to helping individuals and families achieve healthier, more fulfilling lives through accessible, compassionate, and evidence-based services. A few years ago, the organization adopted the slogan Together. Guiding. Change, and feel this partnership with CurvePoint is another example of leading positive change.
Learn more at www.guidancecenter.net.

About CurvePoint
CurvePoint has built a sensing intelligence layer for the physical world, using Wi-Fi sensing and AI to understand activity in shared spaces without relying on traditional surveillance. Its Wi-AI Entry Threat Detection solution identifies concealed and visible firearm threats at building entry points and provides real-time alerts to support faster, protocol-aligned response. CurvePoint is a Carnegie Mellon University spinout headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Learn more at www.curvepoint.ai

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