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Building Kind Schools and Communities

For Youth

Please always remember you deserve to be treated with respect and kindness.  Even though you may feel alone, you are not alone.  There are so many, many people who care about you!!  Please never, ever give up.  Reach out for help as often as you need to. You are important. You are so needed in this world.

Crisis Hotlines in U.S.

  • National Hopeline Network -24 Hour service
    Helpline 1: 1-800-784-2433
  • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -24 Hour service
    Helpline 1: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
  • The Trevor Lifeline-suicide prevention lifeline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and  questioning youth-  (866) 4-U-TREVOR  (866) 488-7386
  •  National (U.S.) 24 hour hotline for youth dealing with abuse, cutting, anorexia, bulimia, suicidal thoughts and/or other issues- (800) USA KIDS   (800-872-5437)

Crisis Hotlines Around the World

 

Tips for youth who are being bullied

Know and remind yourself often that it is not your fault, that you do not deserve to be bullied and that there are so many people who care.

Report the bullying to an adult, making sure they understand how badly it is affecting you.  If it doesn’t get better, keep reporting to other adults until someone helps you and it gets better. Never give up!

Ask friends or other students to help you.

Get involved in activities outside of and away from school to meet new friends.

Get involved in anti-bullying and bullying prevention work in your school and community. Ideas for doing this are below.

Tips for youth who are bystanders

Tell the person bullying to stop.

Stand up for and/or stand next to the person being bullied.

Report the bullying to one or more adults or offer to go with person being bullied to report it.

Offer support and empathy later to person being bullied. Include them in your activities.

Start or become involved in bullying prevention activities in your school and community.  Ideas for activities are below.

Tips for youth who are bullying others

Remind yourself that what you say and do leaves its mark forever.  Mean words and actions affect people for their entire life.

Think about what kind of world you want… one in which it is okay and even cool to be mean? Or one in which people respect each other?

Learn to have empathy and care about the feelings of others. Practice with one person or one interaction at a time.

Love and have compassion for yourself and know that putting others down does not bring you up.

Know that you can stop bullying. Everyday is a new chance to stop bullying.

Become involved in bullying prevention activities in your school.

Websites, chatrooms and support groups for youth

 http://www.stompoutbullying.org/livechat_portal.php  – webpage and chat room for kids and teens

http://www.theinsite.org/index.html – website for teens dealing with a variety of issues including personal relationships

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/teens-share-personal-stories-about-bullying-on-stageoflifecom-1538627.htm  – place for teens to share stories about bullying

http://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx – website with chatline for kids who are being bullied

http://www.bullying.org/index.cfm  -Click on “want to share” -has links to support groups for kids who are bullied and for parents-

http://www.bulliesout.com  – has lots of info and mentoring for kids

http://cybermentors.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26 – has mentors for youth by trained youth

http://www.kidscape.org.uk/childrenteens/index.asp – info and support for kids

 

Student Action Ideas for Kind Schools

Establish a group/committee in your school whose focus is creating a kinder school climate (bullying prevention)

-Ask a teacher or parent to help you get started on this.

http://www.dosomething.org/clubs/starter-kit -Toolkit for starting a club/team/committee

http://www.schoolclimate.org/bullybust/assets/documents/upstanderKit_students.pdf  -Toolkit for Student Leaders to Create an Upstander Alliance

http://www.schoolclimate.org/bullybust/assets/documents/upstanderKit_moderators.pdf  – Moderator  Toolkit for Creating an Upstander Alliance

-Determine a name for your group and how often you will meet.

(http://www.actionwork.com/positiveslogans.html)

  • Themes related to anti-bullying/bullying prevention that you can focus on:

-Being kind, respectful, compassionate

-Making sure kids are included (no one is left out)

-Being a good friend

-Speaking up when you see/hear or hear about bullying (be an ally, an

upstander instead of a bystander)

Projects that your bullying prevention group can initiate.  When possible include parents and the community.

Create a pledge based on one of the above themes or something similar such as:

  • I will be try to be kind.
  • I will try to include everyone.
  • I will try to help kids who are being bullied by befriending them and report the bullying.

–     Some schools have created a short pledge/promise that the students recite every       morning and/or create a longer pledge that students (and teachers) sign and display.

–     Examples of pledges.

http://www.azkids2.org/Anti-BullyPledge.htm

http://www.bullying.org/external/documents/ACF6FA.pdf

http://www.sad34.net/~tritown/Anti-Bullying%20Pledge  (also has a bus safety pledge)

http://www.csh.k12.ny.us/files/filesystem/pledge%20%20anti%20bully.pdf

http://www.arsafeschools.com/Files/BullyingCardBack.pdf

  • Create a friendship club that everyone can join.

-Talk about what it means to be a good friend.

-Talk about ways to help everyone feel cared about and included.

-Do fun activities involving being a good friend and including others.

  • Designate a place where kids can go during recess/breaks/lunchtime who have no one to be or sit with, like a friendship table in the lunchroom.
  • Discuss and plan activities to celebrate and honor all talents,  abilities and uniqueness
  • Poster contests with an anti-bullying theme and display posters around school
  • Door decorating contests
  • Make a welcome video to give to new students when they first come to school
  • Decorate t-shirts with anti-bullying/ be a friend theme and decide to wear them once a week or month
  • Throughout the school year designate certain weeks with various themes surrounding bullying prevention/ being kind/ being a good friend/including others
  • Sponsor art/music/ writing/drama projects in which the focus is on bullying prevention themes
  • Write plays about bullying prevention themes to perform for younger students

-Example ideas for plays:

http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/activities/stick-puppet.asp

http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/Kindness-Ideas

http://www.helpothers.org/ideas.php?op=theme#youth

http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/Educators/School-Activity-Ideas/

  • Hold a community event in your community, church, girl/boy scouts, or other clubs and organizations.

-Sample agenda for community event:

http://www.pacer.org/bullying/pdf/Bullying-Community-Event.pdf

Events to raise awareness and educate: Consider holding some of these more than once a year.  Repetition is key to integrating new social norms of kindness and respect into the school culture.

  • Bullying Awareness Week:

http://www.bullyingawarenessweek.org – click on each day on the left side of the page for lots of ideas to do anytime

http://www.actionwork.com/antibullyingweek – half way down the page there are lots of ideas

http://stompoutbullying.org

  • Bullying Awareness Month:

http://www.pacer.org/bullying/nbpm  – has lots of ideas

Websites with resources to help start a gay/straight alliance in your school:

http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/2226.html?state=tools&type=student

http://www.gsanetwork.org/resources/building-your-gsa

Websites with resources for starting a diversity club:

http://www.dosomething.org/clubs/starter-kit

http://www.cherrycreekdiversity.or/2012/resources.php?target=Activity+Ideas+for+Diversity+Clubs

Student Action Toolkits:

http://www.stopbullying.gov/teens/stand_against_bullying/index.html – click on the Youth Leader Toolkit on the right hand side of the page

http://stompoutbullying.org/student_participation_toolkit.php

 Website pages specifically with ideas for student action:

http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/ideasbox/ideas/student-action

http://www.angriesout.com/kids6.htm

http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/chillout/active.shtml

http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/ideasbox/ideas/school-community/activities

http://www.nonamecallingweek.org/binary-data/NoNameCalling_ATTACHMENTS/file/37-1.pdf  -pages of ideas that can be used any time during the year, not just No Name Calling Week

http://www.adl.org/Prejudice/closethebook.pdf  -101 Ways to Combat Prejudice

http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/cyberbullying/prevention / – ideas for schools, families and communities

Be creative, have fun and involve everyone! 🙂

For further information or assistance please contact Ann Gettis at jeremiahs.hope@yahoo.com and/or visit www.facebook.com/jeremiahshopeforkindness