A Canadian Approach to Prevent School Bullying and Violence

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A Canadian Approach to Prevent School Bullying
and Violence
Creating Safe and Caring Learning Communities

• International Conference on School Bullying and
  Violence
• Stavanger, Norway
• September 5-8, 2004
• Sandra Dean
• Together We Light the Way
• Canada

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Results School Safety

• Decreased incidents of bullying over the
  three-year period of implementation

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Results Academic Achievement

• Students met or exceeded grade equivalent growth

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Focus

• Creating Safe and Caring
• Learning Communities
• Bullying

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Safe and Caring
Learning Community
Resilient
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Risk Factors

• Unsuccessful in school
• Low academic achievement
• Low sense of self
• Unsafe and insecure environment
• Victimization
• Bullying
• Fighting
• Poor nutrition
• Family stress
• Poor relationships
• Low secure attachments to caring adults

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Protective Factors

• School success
• Increased academic achievement
• A sense of self
• Safe, secure and nurturing environments
• A healthful lifestyle
• Positive family and school relationships
• Respectful and caring relationships
• Connection to caring adults

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Monitoring and Evaluating

• Informed decision making
• Refine implementation
• Change or re-direct practice

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Comprehensive School Based-Model
Pillars for Living, Learning Growing and Being

• Academic
• Respect
• Teamwork
• Leadership

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Guiding Principles

• Everyone is unique and has a contribution to make
• Everyone has strengths which must be nurtured and
  supported
• Everyone has the right to be respected and the
  responsibility to respect others
• Service to others performed with caring and love
  makes a difference

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School/Community-Wide Approach

• Agreements
• Consequences

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Role Models

• Like it or not, teachers, parents, caregivers,
  we are all role models. Our daily choices and
  actions will echo through the generations.
• - Jensen

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Circles of Respect
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Partner Engagement

• Social Capital
• Social Cohesion

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Current and Future Initiatives

• Provincial Governments
• Canadian Government
• U.S. Government
• The Caribbean
• OECD
• United Nations

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From Program to Practice

1. Comprehensive training
2. Step-by-step instructions and staged
   implementation approaches
3. Full range of resources
4. Measurement tools
5. Ongoing support
6. Best-practice sharing opportunities
7. Celebration events

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Community
Somewhere, there are people to whom we can Speak
with passion, without having the words Catch in
our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will
open To receive us, Eyes will light up as we
enter, Voices will celebrate us whenever we come
into Our own power. Community means strength
that joins Our strength to do the work that Needs
to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A
circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace
where we can be free. - Christina Baldwin
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Contact Information

• Sandra Dean
• Together We Light the Way
• Durham District School Board
• 400 Taunton Road East
• Whitby, Ontario L1R 2K6
• Canada
• dean_sandra_at_durham.edu.on.ca
• www.togetherwelighttheway.com