Under-Reported School Violence - Kidpower Solutions and Skills

This recent Education Week News commentary describes the tremendous under-reporting of levels of school violence in the US. My guess is that this might be true in other countries as well.

While the situation described saddens me, it does not surprise me. At Kidpower, we hear stories all the time from upset, frightened parents whose children have been harassed, bullied, intimidated, and attacked at school. We coach parents in how to advocate with school authorities for their children and in how to prepare their children with skills to protect themselves and get help. In our experience, most of these assaults are not reported.

To be effective, administrative and reporting solutions must include resources and skills for preventing and stopping peer aggression. Teachers, playground supervisors, bus drivers, parents and all other adults in the school community need to know how to notice problems sooner rather than later, and how to intervene in a pro-active balanced way. They need to be commended by school administrators for addressing problems, rather than trying to minimize those problems.

This article gives some of Kidpower’s perspective about what makes it hard for institutions such as schools to address problems and what actions we can take as individuals to address these issues:
Worthy of Trust: What Organizations Need to Do to Protect Children From Harm

The purpose of our Positive Peer Interaction Initiative is to give adults and children tools for building healthy relationships, for setting boundaries in powerful and respectful ways, and for being persistent in getting help. This article gives an example of how we use skills to address difficult and/or dangerous behavior.
Practice as a Management Tool for Unsafe, Disrespectful Behavior

These two articles are examples of our approach to dealing with violence in schools:

Armed Violence in Schools – Solutions for Empowering Children

Overcoming the Bystander Effect: Kidpower Response to Richmond High School Assault

Finally, this article provides guidance for parents on what to do to take charge of the safety of their children at school in ways that are realistic, respectful, and effective most of the time:
Bullying in Schools - Seven Solutions for Parents

At Kidpower, our goal is to empower administrators, teachers, parents, and children with knowledge and skills for creating cultures of caring, respect, and safety for everyone. We do this through our free on-line Library, our publications, and our workshops. Please contact us at safety@kidpower.org for more information.

Be Willing to Look like a Fool! - Great Advice for Fundraising and Teaching Alike

The best fund raising - and teaching - advice I've ever gotten came from a master fundraiser of a very conservative very official organization. This man always wore a three-piece suit and raised over 100 million dollars from individuals for his cause.

"You have to be willing," this very wise man told me, "to look like a fool!"

Of course, I do my best to be credible, but I've found that at some point you have to let go of appearances, take a leap of faith, and communicate your message with all your heart.

Fundraising is actually a form of teaching. When you are teaching, you are educating people about a skill or idea you think is important. When you are fundraising, you are educating people about why they should give to your cause.

Our third 2-minute vodcast takes this advice very much to heart, with PuppetPower both for teaching safety and for fundraising.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clWY8ifPPjM

This was filmed in my living room with a couple of lamps and no fancy equipment. I'm getting over a cold, and my voice sounds like it. My hair has a mind of its own. Patrick Heaviside is volunteering his time to film, edit, and produce these with some coaching from my brother, Ken, and you can probably tell that we are learning as we go.

PuppetPower came into being when we learned that people, especially young children, will often listen to puppets better than they listen to us. This two-minute Vodcast has Duck and Tiger showing why awareness is important - and has Duck reminding me to ask for help.

I hope you'll have as much fun watching it as we did creating it!

And I do hope you'll put Kidpower on your holiday giving list! Donating is easy. Just go to:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=2854

THANK YOU!