Report on the Banishing Bullying Together projects in McLaren Park / Henderson South

Abstract

Te Punanga Haumaru funding supports whanau and community driven action that encourages positive social behaviour in children and young people, and reduces the incidence of bullying. The Violence Free Communities Banishing Bullying Together BBT project in the McLaren Park/Henderson South (MPHS) area aims to:

• Strengthen community and network awareness of bullying and engagement in proactive prevention approaches across all aspects of the project • Further develop the use, for younger community members, of performance and art processes which encourage positive and rich identity formation, group collaboration and the development of conflict resolution and leadership skills • Coordinate, through local community exploration of their needs and resources, a series of projects, run by community champions, that aim to improve the quality of life of the community • Create opportunities to influence how bullying is understood and responded to in social media

Activities will include: • Hosting community events such as Pink Shirt Day, Our Amazing Place (OAP), SPEAK that connect whanau to services and project activities • Continued ROOTZ, Project Respect and Legacy workshops and the Mark-it-Up art project enabling young people to put their experiences and solutions to bullying into performances and art shared with the public. • Inspiring conversations in work places, churches and sports organisations about bullying prevention (Pink Shirt Day, Mark-it-Up) • Providing facilitation training around leadership and conflict resolution. • Utilising local celebrities as connectors and role models (SPEAK) • Positive social media work (Violence Free Communities, BBT and OAP websites and Facebook pages, Neighbourly) • Resources and tools such as the Bystander Guide to Banishing Bullying, OAP resources:

The 2014-2015 BBT project builds on the previous year’s work of the same name also funded by Te Punanga Hamaru. The emphasis in this year’s programme shifted away from awareness building to building both individual and community capacity to prevent bullying. This was driven, in part, by our experience of building awareness and by an analysis of the drivers of bullying. For example, one of the most successful awareness projects last year was the stall that we ran as part of the OAP event. The stall was at the end of an alleyway that had pinned up a number quotes on A2 laminated posters from some residents about their fear of alleyways and, generally, of walking around their community and from other residents who weren’t fearful and wanted to engage with their community. Everyone who came along the alleyway wanted to discuss what they’d read and consider how they felt about the safety of their community and what coned be done to improve it. These were richer conversations with residents about a very important aspect of bullying (being safe in the street) that we were able to have than with events like Dinner with Difference (a community discussion event) or the community feedback sessions from the in-depth interviews we did last year. What it told us is that communication with residents has to be on their turf and in a way that means they can directly engage with the issues and, hopefully, take action.