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Because October is Bullying Prevention Month, I want to remind you about some of our resources and programs for empowering young people and adults with skills to stop harassment and bullying, advocate for themselves and others, and build positive, healthy relationships.
At the core of Kidpower’s Positive Peer Communication (Bullying Prevention) programs is this quote from our founder and executive director, Irene van der Zande:
“Everyone has the right to be treated with safety and respect — and the responsibility to act safely and respectfully towards others.”
The reason we call our programs Positive Peer Communication, is because our approach is to teach the skills we want young people and adults to build for respectful self-advocacy, boundary setting, and effectively getting help. These skills do help to prevent bullying and harassment — and even more importantly: they are the same skills that help everyone to build positive, healthy relationships and a culture of safety and respect in their families, schools, communities, and workplaces.
These and many other resources can be found on our website – starting with our Positive Peer Communication & Bullying Prevention Resources Page:
1) Our book, “Bullying: What Adults Need to Know and Do to Keep Kids Safe“, has been used in the bullying prevention programs of many families, schools and youth organizations.
Our newly re-released Kidpower Safety Comics series is a wonderful teaching and learning tool at home and in school, with entertaining cartoon-illustrated stories that show how to role-play and practice skills for using awareness, setting boundaries, and getting help with problems.
2) This month, our free coaching conference call, “Turning Problems into Practices”, is about Bullying and Harassment – What we can do to make a difference, which will be held at Noon on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Register to attend this 1-hour call and join us to discuss your question live, or just to listen in.
It never ceases to impress me how many great questions come up on these calls, and how Irene can coach people in the moment with an action plan that empowers the adults to model and teach skills that can make a positive difference in the lives of young people – and for themselves.
3) Our free library includes these common-sense, up-beat podcasts, created by our California Program Director Erika Leonard. These have been used by many classrooms, youth groups, and families to help develop understanding and a common language about safety with peers:
Tattling or Telling: How to Tell the Difference
Danger Ahead: Emailing While Angry
4) The following articles provide knowledge and skills for adults to help them protect the children and teens in their lives – and themselves – from bullying:
Bullying: Common Questions and Answers From Kidpower
Shunning and Exclusion: Kidpower Skills for Protecting Kids From Relational Bullying
Speaking up about Putdowns – and Managing Reactions
Bullying in Schools: Seven Solutions for Parents<
Face Bullying with Confidence: Eight Skills Kids Can Use Right Away
Unsafe Words We Use On Ourselves: Kidpower Skills for Unlearning Negative Self-Talk
Mean Adults? Skills to Address Adult-Adult Bullying
With school now in full swing, I find myself re-reading articles and parts of our Kidpower books lately – and finding new ways to apply Kidpower core ideas to situations I face as the mom of a school-aged child and a member of several youth-serving organizations in my community. I hope you will find these links to resources that help us stand up to harassment and bullying to be useful. Please feel free share them with anyone who you think will benefit from them as well.
Published: October 8, 2015 | Last Updated: October 8, 2015
Beth McGreevy
Beth (she/her/hers) is the Web Communications Director and a Senior Program Leader for Kidpower International. She is a former journalist, now writing & editing coach, business technology and strategy consultant, child protection and gender inclusion advocate, and has been a Kidpower instructor (for all-ages) since 1992.
