BREAKING THE SILENCE INITIATIVE FAQ
WHAT IS THE BREAKING THE SILENCE INITIATIVE?
The Breaking the Silence Initiative is a service learning project that will target the reduction of bullying and the improvement of school climate for K - 12 students by training a core group of youth representatives to develop and implement experiential anti-bullying lessons. We will not only be visiting schools in person, we will also create multimedia and social media campaigns that provide opportunities for student advocacy and leadership within our region while making our message available nationwide.
CAN YOU GIVE ME A MORE DETAILED ANSWER?
The Breaking the Silence Initiative is inspired by the Day of Silence, a nationwide student protest event sponsored by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) in which students elect to stay silent for the duration of one school day to symbolize the silence that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students are forced into to avoid bullying and harassment in schools. A 2009 nationwide school climate survey conducted by GLSEN indicated that more than 4/5 LGBT students are verbally harassed due to sexual orientation, nearly 2/3 of LGBT students reported harassment due to gender expression/identity, and 7/10 students heard homophobic remarks in school. On top of these statistics, around 2/5 LGBT students reported some form of physical harassment. Our project aims to meet the needs of these students as well as all bullied students through positive service-learning experiences.
The Breaking the Silence Initiative is sponsored by GSAASEM (GSA Alliance of Southeast Michigan), the youth board of GLSEN Southeast Michigan. We plan to provide anti-bullying curriculum through a variety of educational techniques. Our main focus will be at preventing bullying where it happens -- directly in public K -- 12 schools. We will send youth representatives to schools across the tri-county area of Metro Detroit in order to provide engaging, hands on anti-bullying presentations to students. These presentations will be tailored to the age level and time allotted by the host school. These presentations will be run by trained high school youth representatives under adult supervision. While our presentations will have focus on stopping bullying based on perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, we will also address bullying on a broader scale, especially when working with younger students. In addition to providing direct service learning opportunities in schools, we will create public service announcements featuring youth. Our goal is to create a PSA at each high school that will personalize the anti-bullying campaign. We will also launch an anti-bullying social media campaign by using sites like Facebook, Youtube, and Tumblr (a blogging site with a focus on content sharing) so students across the nation can get involved in spreading our powerful anti-bullying message. We will create a website to enable students to contact us as well as to provide location specific anti-bullying resources and resources for LGBT youth within our target area of Southeast Michigan. Finally, we will work to provide advocacy opportunities for youth through inviting youth leaders to attend our GSAASEM meetings, sponsoring trips for them to meet with legislators in Lansing, hosting youth summits to educate students about LGBT issues and bullying, allowing youth to design and present interactive activities for school visits, and lobbying for support of inclusive anti-bullying bills. By using a combination of approaches to combat bullying, we believe that our sustainable project can be effective at making school environments safer for all students.
WHAT AREA IS IMPACTED?
Students involved in implementing the program will be secondary students from the Southeast Michigan region, and the K-12 schools that we visit are primarily Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties (the tri-county Metro Detroit area). However, our website, social media campaigns, and PSAs will affect a nationwide audience.
HOW ARE YOUTH INVOLVED?
Youth completely designed this proposal from start to finish. A member of the GSA Alliance of Southeast Michigan (GSAASEM, our youth board) had the idea for the Breaking the Silence Initiative, and the student met with the rest of the GLSEN Board to develop the idea further. Youth have previously had a strong role in GLSEN Southeast Michigan, and GSAASEM enables these students to develop and execute projects such as this proposal. In terms of the implementation of the project, youth will have a broad array of leadership roles, from being able to present at schools to being responsible for writing public service announcement scripts, plus will constantly be involved in engaging the community by participating in advocacy opportunities.We will utilize our youth board (GSAASEM) consisting of around 50 students from across Southeast Michigan to plan school presentations and develop social media campaigns that will be entirely youth led.
ANY OTHER INFO?
This project is a powerful balance between direct regional interactive peer-to-peer presentations and nationwide social media and PSA campaigns that enables students to make a maximum level of impact on school climate and inclusive anti-bullying policies. The Breaking the Silence Initiative would allow students to strongly reflect upon themselves and their community to make positive changes in their school, which would inspire leadership in youth across Southeast Michigan. The nature of the project means that it will have a nationwide effect, our project will not impacted by location based limitations and large numbers of people will be reached with the anti-bullying message we will spread using social media tools. This sustainable project does not require excessive funding, but will have a huge impact on schools and could create a domino effect across the country, eventually resulting in massive expansion of this project into a nationwide initiative.
WHAT IS THE BREAKING THE SILENCE INITIATIVE?
The Breaking the Silence Initiative is a service learning project that will target the reduction of bullying and the improvement of school climate for K - 12 students by training a core group of youth representatives to develop and implement experiential anti-bullying lessons. We will not only be visiting schools in person, we will also create multimedia and social media campaigns that provide opportunities for student advocacy and leadership within our region while making our message available nationwide.
CAN YOU GIVE ME A MORE DETAILED ANSWER?
The Breaking the Silence Initiative is inspired by the Day of Silence, a nationwide student protest event sponsored by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) in which students elect to stay silent for the duration of one school day to symbolize the silence that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students are forced into to avoid bullying and harassment in schools. A 2009 nationwide school climate survey conducted by GLSEN indicated that more than 4/5 LGBT students are verbally harassed due to sexual orientation, nearly 2/3 of LGBT students reported harassment due to gender expression/identity, and 7/10 students heard homophobic remarks in school. On top of these statistics, around 2/5 LGBT students reported some form of physical harassment. Our project aims to meet the needs of these students as well as all bullied students through positive service-learning experiences.
The Breaking the Silence Initiative is sponsored by GSAASEM (GSA Alliance of Southeast Michigan), the youth board of GLSEN Southeast Michigan. We plan to provide anti-bullying curriculum through a variety of educational techniques. Our main focus will be at preventing bullying where it happens -- directly in public K -- 12 schools. We will send youth representatives to schools across the tri-county area of Metro Detroit in order to provide engaging, hands on anti-bullying presentations to students. These presentations will be tailored to the age level and time allotted by the host school. These presentations will be run by trained high school youth representatives under adult supervision. While our presentations will have focus on stopping bullying based on perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, we will also address bullying on a broader scale, especially when working with younger students. In addition to providing direct service learning opportunities in schools, we will create public service announcements featuring youth. Our goal is to create a PSA at each high school that will personalize the anti-bullying campaign. We will also launch an anti-bullying social media campaign by using sites like Facebook, Youtube, and Tumblr (a blogging site with a focus on content sharing) so students across the nation can get involved in spreading our powerful anti-bullying message. We will create a website to enable students to contact us as well as to provide location specific anti-bullying resources and resources for LGBT youth within our target area of Southeast Michigan. Finally, we will work to provide advocacy opportunities for youth through inviting youth leaders to attend our GSAASEM meetings, sponsoring trips for them to meet with legislators in Lansing, hosting youth summits to educate students about LGBT issues and bullying, allowing youth to design and present interactive activities for school visits, and lobbying for support of inclusive anti-bullying bills. By using a combination of approaches to combat bullying, we believe that our sustainable project can be effective at making school environments safer for all students.
WHAT AREA IS IMPACTED?
Students involved in implementing the program will be secondary students from the Southeast Michigan region, and the K-12 schools that we visit are primarily Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties (the tri-county Metro Detroit area). However, our website, social media campaigns, and PSAs will affect a nationwide audience.
HOW ARE YOUTH INVOLVED?
Youth completely designed this proposal from start to finish. A member of the GSA Alliance of Southeast Michigan (GSAASEM, our youth board) had the idea for the Breaking the Silence Initiative, and the student met with the rest of the GLSEN Board to develop the idea further. Youth have previously had a strong role in GLSEN Southeast Michigan, and GSAASEM enables these students to develop and execute projects such as this proposal. In terms of the implementation of the project, youth will have a broad array of leadership roles, from being able to present at schools to being responsible for writing public service announcement scripts, plus will constantly be involved in engaging the community by participating in advocacy opportunities.We will utilize our youth board (GSAASEM) consisting of around 50 students from across Southeast Michigan to plan school presentations and develop social media campaigns that will be entirely youth led.
ANY OTHER INFO?
This project is a powerful balance between direct regional interactive peer-to-peer presentations and nationwide social media and PSA campaigns that enables students to make a maximum level of impact on school climate and inclusive anti-bullying policies. The Breaking the Silence Initiative would allow students to strongly reflect upon themselves and their community to make positive changes in their school, which would inspire leadership in youth across Southeast Michigan. The nature of the project means that it will have a nationwide effect, our project will not impacted by location based limitations and large numbers of people will be reached with the anti-bullying message we will spread using social media tools. This sustainable project does not require excessive funding, but will have a huge impact on schools and could create a domino effect across the country, eventually resulting in massive expansion of this project into a nationwide initiative.