Drum Roll Please
It is with great pleasure that we announce the winners of this year’s annual United Against Bullying Grant Program. We received 121 applications, many of which were creative, well-planned, and ambitious. All of the proposals had the students’ safety and well-being clearly defined as a priority. This made the selection process both exciting and very difficult.
“Winning is not everything but making the effort to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
We thank every applicant who took the time to apply for funding to help stop bullying and keep their students safe. Everyone who applied is a winner for starting the thought process, conversations, and planning. It will have ripple effects.
Diverse Programming Proposed
Here are just a few of the strategies proposed by grant winners:
- Help students understand what bullying is and how to handle it from the point of view of the bully, the bullied, or the bystander
- Support programs that teach empathy, problem-solving, self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making
- Establish peer-to-peer speaking groups and clubs, conferences for students and teachers, and restorative circles
- Launch school-wide bullying awareness days, events celebrating diversity, art and poetry contests about bullying; and incentive/reward programs for kindness.
We also received proposals from transportation departments requesting school bus equipment, training on bullying for bus drivers, and programs to connect bus drivers with the school and community.
2017 United Against Bullying Grant Winners
Banning Unified SD, California
Barren County SD 21, Kentucky
Beekman Charter School, Louisiana
Benjamin Cosor Elementary School, Fallsburg Central SD, New York
Blenheim Bus Lines, Ontario
Cahokia Unit SD 187, Illinois
Carlinville Community Unit School District #1, Illinois
Chadwick R-1 SD, Missouri
Charlotte Mecklenburg County SD, North Carolina
Cottage Grove Middle School, South Washington County Schools, Minnesota
Fordland R-III SD, Missouri
Green Forest SD, Arkansas
Helen Keller Junior High School, Schaumburg SD 54, Illinois
High Mount SD 116, Illinois
Highland Central SD, New York
International Bullying Prevention Association, Michigan
Midway R-1 SD, Missouri
Moreland Arts & Health Sciences Magnet School, Minnesota
PeaceMaker Minnesota, Minnesota
Rachel’s Challenge, Colorado
Reach Child and Youth Development Society, British Columbia
Sit With Us, Inc., California
Smithtown High School East, Smithtown Central SD, New York
St. Louis Public SD, Missouri
Stand Strong USA Inc., DBA Be Strong, Florida
Stevens Point Area SD, Wisconsin
Tackan Elementary School, Smithtown Central SD, New York
Tarkio R-I SD, Missouri
Uvalde Consolidated Independent SD, Texas
Vallo Transportation Ltd., New York
Washington Middle School, SD of Washington, Missouri
Wayne County SD, North Carolina
Worthington City Schools, Ohio
Wynford Elementary School, Wynford Local Schools, Ohio
Zadok Casey Middle School, Illinois
Changing a Culture
Congratulations and thank you to all of the winners, and to everyone who has conversations with young people on kindness and bullying. It requires conscious commitment, agreement between all parties (think of a pledge), and consistent messaging (think of posters, incentives for helpfulness, public address systems reporting random acts of kindness), to change the environment. Given that 160,000 students skip school every day because they are afraid of being bullied, we believe there is nothing more important you could focus on.
For current news on our campaigns, added resources, and inspiring stories, subscribe to UAB’s semi-monthly e-newsletter, The Ripple Effect.
Teresa Lynne
United Against Bullying Program Coordinator
teresa.lynne@seon.com
