The Canadian government has announced its support for the Canadian Red Cross's (CRC) youth-led anti-bullying project that will get more than 50,000 students involved in bullying prevention.
The Stand Up to Bullying and Discrimination in Canadian Communities project will see 2,400 youths, aged 13 to 17, across Canada become trained facilitators in bullying prevention. Those kids will then travel around their communities and deliver bullying prevention workshops to fellow students. Each youth involved in the program will commit to reaching at least 20 other kids in their community.
“Bullying is a serious concern for many youths and their families, and we think it's important to invest in a project that focuses on preventing it,” said James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages. “This will be a great opportunity for young people to become leaders in their schools, organizations and communities, and to play a meaningful role in ensuring safer environments for themselves and their peers.”
The Youth Take Charge program of the Department of Canadian Heritage will be providing $250,000 in funding for the initiative run by the CRC.
For the past 25 years the CRC has been working on many projects aimed at helping improve the lives of Canadians.
“The Red Cross has been working for many years in Canada to engage youth and harness their leadership to prevent bullying and harassment,” said Conrad Sauvé, Secretary General and CEO of the Canadian Red Cross. “This project leverages the collective strength, skill and abilities of our youths to broaden the reach of our message about bullying prevention and discrimination.”
Bonnyville Centralized High School has already been doing a similar initiative of its own. The BCHS street team is a student leadership group that creates presentations and presents them to students throughout the town.
“These presentations have been well received and we have seen a significant decrease in cell phone bullying and other types of verbal bullying,” said Baker. “We have also used these same groups of students to present to middle schools around our community, and they have also made a difference for the younger kids as well.”
Baker thought that the government's new project was a “fabulous idea” as bullying is still something that needs to be dealt with even though awareness is getting a lot better.
“I would say that there was bullying when I went to high school and there is still bullying today,” said Baker. “The biggest difference however is the resources within the schools have increased to help improve the situation for kids. It's about education and we have a responsibility as a school to help out the victim, but also educate the student being the bully. We employ a full-time counselor at the school that kids can access and often learn strategies on how to be a better person, as well as how to respond to a bullying situation.”
Baker talked about how the new education act now allows schools to deal with students being bullied both on and off the school grounds.
“Many students are unaware that bullying when it is occurring away from school can still be dealt with at the school level,” said Baker. “We are working to educate students that they need to be accountable for their behavior every day, not just school days. We at BCHS feel that, if a student is behaving in a manner that impacts negatively the learning of others, then we as a school need to respond, and have done so.”
The second part of the project will see three youth-led forums take place in the Atlantic region, Ontario and British Columbia with the intent of empowering 150 Canadian youths to take action against bullying in their communities.
Schools, like BCHS, around the country are always looking for ways to improve the way they deal with bullying and realize the issue still exists.
“Being proactive is the key, and programs like peer mentoring, or student leadership initiatives do indeed make a difference,” said Baker. “There is no magic solution to bullying, but consistent and constant education have made a difference for many students here at school.”
