Bullying Campaign

To create a bullying campaign that is spear headed by students to provide information and resources to the student body. This campaign started as a discussion and has been moving forward ever since. It is aimed at boosting the self-esteem of the students creating the campaign as well as providing needed awareness in the school community. The aim is to create a resource for students to access when needed.

Update (March 1, 2013)

The Parry Sound High School Relevance Project is an all girl class that addresses the emotional, social and academic needs of the students. The goal of the program is to provide a safe learning environment to empower the girls to be successful in their academic achievements and in their personal lives. The Relevance Project is sponsored by The Counselling Foundation of Canada.

The 1st “Take a Stand, Lend a Hand” Bullying Campaign sparked from a simple dialogue in class and began to move forward. During round table discussions, the girls felt that there was not sufficient resources and information available to students at PSHS. The class believed that a student lead approach would be most effective in reaching the student body. The class created a survey that was distributed to the students at PSHS and from there the idea of hosting an information session grew.

The girls worked collaboratively to create movies, buttons, posters, Prezi presentations, and graphs around the bullying theme. They discovered that PINK Day an anti-bullying day was in February and set their sights on presenting PSHS’s campaign on the same day.

Update (March 1, 2013)

As the February 27th grew closer the “Take a Stand, Lend a Hand” Bullying Campaign began to get bigger. A bullying poster created by one of girls was honoured by the NNSB, leading to a front-page article in the local newspaper. In addition, the poster was distributed to all schools in the NNDSB. Fueled by this energy the girls in the class pulled together. We invited community agencies and partners to be part of day. We also invited our feeder schools to participate in the campaign. The “Take a Stand, Lend a Hand” Bullying Campaign” title was established, invitations were sent out and the event became reality.

February 27th arrived and the girls donned in PINK DAY t-shirts and “I am a Host” buttons were ready to go. The campaign drew 350 students to the high school. The day started with a Prezi presentation outlining what the Relevance Project was and how the campaign came to be, followed by an amazing bullying movie created by students in the class. Students were then able to wonder around the fair like atmosphere collecting information and resources from our community partners. Students attending where encouraged to make a pledge to do their part to stop bullying in PSHS and the community. At the conclusion of the Bullying Campaign students were given “stop bullying” pins. The day was a huge success and hopefully will become an annual event at Parry Sound High School. Local media was invited and the event was featured on the radio and on the front page of the local newspaper. The girls in the class demonstrated tremendous creativity, leadership and success in making the day a reality!