Stop Bullying: A School- Wide Campaign Viktorija Andreikėnaitė May 11, 2012 Copenhagen

CONTENT 1.Extent of bullying. 2.Child line and the campaign “Stop bullying”. 3.List of activities. 4.Anti-bullying week.

Bullied children in 2006

“STOP BULLYING” CAMPAIGN BY CHILD LINE LITHUANIA In February of 2004 the Child Line Lithuania initiated campaign „Stop bullying“. The goal of campaign is to encourage the amity between children, adults and to make a secure school without bullying and violence.

Short introduction The main purposes of the campaign are to turn society’s attention to bullying among children and teenagers, motivate to search for bullying prevention methods. Campaign consists of implementing anti-bullying tools in schools in Lithuania,  arranging trainings for school personnel,  publishing the informative material for children, school staff and parents,  publishing the information on the website.

The list of activities 1. Bracelets “Without bullying”. The purpose of bracelets’ release has been to attract and gather together people working in different sectors as for instance  social workers, politicians, enterprisers, schoolchildren etc. to join the campaign“Stop Bullying”.  The bracelet is the symbol of friendly environment creation. The presentation bracelets’ release was arranged as well. All participants of the presentation had the possibility to put on the bracelets and say a few words why they think it is worth to support this idea. Later on everybody had the possibility to order the bracelet and receive it at Child Line’s office for free.

The list of activities (2) 2. Cards with famous people in Lithuania The purpose of the cards’ release has been to invite famous people of Lithuania to join the campaign “Stop Bullying”. The card includes the childhood picture of the person and on the other side of the card – the short story or situation related to bullying from the childhood’s period.

Cards with famous people in Lithuania Cards were released three times with seven famous people. Cards were distributed to all schools in Lithuania. The phone and some information about Child Line were also present on the cards so that children could see where they can turn to if they have any difficulties or problems.

The list of activities (3) 3. Books for schools about Bullying:  a) “Bullying prevention in Schools”,  b)“Let’s create the school without bullying” Both books are tools for school personnel about bullying in schools and methods how to reduce it as well as to create friendly and tolerant school’s atmosphere based on respect to each other. It is possible to download these books on Child line’s web page:  “Bullying prevention in Schools”  “Let’s create the school without bullying” Books are for free and can be ordered at the Child Line’s office by phone or .

PUBLICATIONS

The list of activities (4) 8. Anti-bullying week It’s being organized every March, 3 years in a row. It’s aim is once again to attract public attention to violation in children's relationships, bullying and humiliation, which is rich in children’s and adult’s communication.

Anti-bullying week The leader of this intervention is the head of Child line Lithuania – Robertas Povilaitis, coordinator – Marina Mažionienė, help from volunteers of the Child line. There weren’t any resisters of this action. However, Child Line gets some criticism once in while. The most popular is as if they’re trying to prevent bullying only for one week. Although, we see that the Compaign is much wider than this action.

Anti-bullying week (2) The timing was considered as the most comfortable for schools: end of March – no exams yet, not summer holidays yet, the weather is getting warmer. Child line is trying to keep the tradition – end of March.

Anti-bullying week (3) The main barrier is lack of financing. This problem was solved by partners and friends of the initiative: a lot of organizations agreed to work voluntarily: room for seminars, lectors for free, etc.

Anti-bullying week (4) The aim of Anti-bullying week is not to decrease the prevalence of bullying, so it’s rather difficult to monitor or evaluate smth. Nevertheless, we are glad that the initiative is getting more and more popular – in 2010 – 700 participants, 2011 and 2012 – 1065 participants were registred.

Anti-bullying week (5) There are a few sectors involved: national organizations, NGO’s, business sector. Resources/ financing:  2010 – Ambassy of the USA  2011 – 0 resources… Everything’s was based on resources of Child line.  2012 – Ministry of Education and Science

Anti-bullying week (6) Leadership, capacity and infrastructure:  The main role of Child line in the initiative is to coordinate and negotiate with all the organizations dealing with this week (mostly schools).  Leadership, planning and administrating is very important.

Anti-bullying week (7) There are no regular sponsors for this action. By now, we don’t know if there is enough money for next year’s initiative.

Anti-bullying week (8) Lessons learned:  There’s an ambition to involve smaller towns and rural areas.  Public relations are very important – professional help needed to prepare the promotion plan, organize the opening event, etc.

Anti-bullying week (9) Challenges:  The main challenge is lack of financing and to find a permanent source of financing.  The initiative is getting more and more global – there’s a need of professional help. Child line resources are not enough.

Thanks for your attention!