This post is sponsored by Shaw. All opinions are my own.
With Pink Shirt day happening every year in February, it’s easy to forget that bullying prevention education and community involvement should be happening all year long.
Shaw introduces the Kindness Sticks Grant for kids wanting to create a bullying prevention event and movement right at their own school. Kids can come up with a creative idea for an event or project to bring kindness and apply for up to $5000 to make it a reality.
WHAT WOULD WORK AT YOUR CHILD’S SCHOOL?
Here are just a few starting ideas:
- Kindness Sticks mural
- Bullying prevention event
- Book about bullying featuring work from students
- Local expert speaker brought in for a day
- Student empowerment workshops
- Kindness focused books to add to the school library
KEEP IN MIND WHEN APPLYING
- How does my project contribute to a positive school environment?
- What kind of budget does my project need?
- How can people volunteer and get involved to make my project come to life?
- Who does my project impact and reach?
- How is my project creative and unique?
More information is here and you + your child can apply here.
Image Credit Shutterstock.com
Did you know that bullying tends to stop within 10 seconds when bystanders intervene?
According to the Red Cross:
- Victims of harassment report a loss of interest in school activities, more absenteeism, lower-quality schoolwork, lower grades, and more skipping/dropping classes, tardiness and truancy.2
- Young people who report lower academic achievement levels or negative feelings about the school environment are more likely to be involved in bullying.3
- 71 per cent of teachers say they usually intervene with bullying problems; but only 25 per cent of students say that teachers intervene.4
- Over half of bullied children do not report being bullied to a teacher.5
Thankfully we haven’t experienced any incidents of bullying in our family. I warn my girls of the things I’ve read about and seen and I think the most important thing is to talk about it as a family openly.
Image Credit pexels.com
There are more resources on the Shaw Kindness site including videos and links for more information.
Images: Shutterstock.