The Canadian Red Cross’ Respect Education program, based in Burnaby, recently received a $2,000 grant from United Against Bullying!
United Against Bullying! was founded in 2012 following the death of Amanda Todd, a Coquitlam teen who committed suicide after she was cyberbullied. The organization was started by Seon, a division of Safe Fleet.
Respect Education trains children and youth, to prevent bullying and abuse, according to Yvette Plante, program representative.
Its two-day bullying prevention program is called Beyond the Hurt.
“We talk about peer-to-peer relationships and how to help when you see bullying happen, how to prevent when you see bullying happen, and just how to have better peer interactions within the school,” Plante said.
The program has been extremely effective, she added, pointing to studies done on it as well as feedback from teachers and students.
“One of our most powerful moments of feedback was from a teacher who actually said, ‘You know what? I think we’ve managed to save a girl’s life in this instance,’” Plante said.
But the most telling proof of the program’s effectiveness is in the schools, she added.
“We tell kids, 57 per cent of the time, bullying will stop within 10 seconds if a peer intervenes,” Plante said. “With that knowledge, they know that more than half the time, we can stop this. Once you have that as part of the school culture, it does change those types of behaviours within the school.”
The grant will go towards the program’s rapid response efforts for incidents throughout the province, she said.
For more information, go to www.tinyurl.com/RedCrossRespect.
