5 Ways to Celebrate NBPM - Episode 5

The start of October means it’s the beginning of National Bullying Prevention Month! Initiated by PACER 12 years ago, this is a great time for schools, organizations and individuals to raise awareness about bullying and the role we all play in making a difference. In today’s episode of PACERTalks About Bullying, we’ll share 5 ideas on how to celebrate National Bullying Prevention Month in your community. Join us right back here next week for another episode!

Transcript

>>Hey there! Welcome back to PACERTalks About Bullying. I'm Bailey. We're glad you're here.

We are so excited that it's the month of October which kicks off National Bullying Prevention Month. Every day, thousands of students experience bullying from their peers at school, online or in the community. October is a great way to show your support whether it's as an individual, with your family and friends or in your school or community. In today's episode we're going to share five ideas and ways to get involved in your community this October. Now, let's get into the episode.

The first idea is to add your name to the digital petition. With more than one out of five students experiencing bullying every year, chances are, this could be happening to someone that you know and care about. You can show your support by signing PACER's online pledge. Now, one of the coolest parts about this pledge and my personal favorite part is that it's interactive. So, after you go on and show your support, you'll be able to see how many others have joined and signed the pledge with you, where they're from and if they identify as a student, parent, educator, or community member. This is an awesome to see that when we all come together, we can make a huge difference.

The second idea is holding a community event. Bullying prevention isn't up to just one individual or one school, it takes the entire community to create safe and supportive environments for the students. One awesome way to raise awareness during October is by holding an event in your community. PACER has tons of ideas and free resources to help get you started, like our run/walk/roll event kit or pledge signing even tool keep. Community events like these are great way to bring everyone together and show that you care.

The third way to get involved is by celebrating unity day on October 24th. This is PACER's signature event during October and there's an awesome time to show your support for bullying prevention. The call to action is simple. Wear and share the color orange. Now, why orange? Well, orange provides a powerful visual expression of solidarity and sends a message that bullying behavior is never acceptable. PACER has tons of free resources like unity day posters, which we have in English and Spanish as well as ideas in what you can do in your school or community. One example, and I absolutely love this one, is one school district created a kindness bus. They took an orange bus and had students write messages of kindness and positivity. After unity day was over, they used it as a rolling billboard and took the bus to other school sites to encourage kindness.

The fourth idea is spreading the word in your community. October is a great time to promote a dialog about the role that we all have in addressing and preventing bullying. Along with talking with community members, it's also important to talk with education and public policy leaders about the role that they play. To help you get this conversation started, PACER has tips for speaking in the community, sample press releases and more. Now, we've heard from a lot of students that have actually reached out to their governor's office to request a proclamation for national bullying prevention month. If this is something that you're interested in doing, we have a template on our website that you can use and send after your governor or mayor's office. And the fifth idea is to be creative. Well, these are just a few ideas.

October is really a time to be creative on how you want to raise awareness in your community. This is one of my personal favorite times here at PACER because we got to hear amazing stories of what community members are doing to make sure that all students feel safe and supported. One really cool example was an orthodontist that encouraged their patients to get orange bands on their braces to show their support for bullying prevention. You know your community best, so be creative on how you want to raise awareness and get everyone involved. And make sure you share with us because we are so excited to hear about what you do. I know these are just five ideas, there's so many ways to get involved in National Bullying Prevention Month. Know that no matter what step you take during October, big or small, you can make a difference. All of these positive acts really add up and make the world a better place for everyone.

That's all that we have for you this week on PACERTalks About Bullying. We'll see you right back here, next week. And remember, together, we can help create a world without bullying. See you.