Bring Light: Stop Bullying in Schools

PROJECT

Stop Bullying in Schools - Promote Friendships

Wings Learning Center

Help increase autism awareness and promote positive relationships. Through the Friend 2 Friend program, we plan to increase awareness about autism and encourages mutual friendships between typical peers and children with autism. The program will encourage children to recognize and accept differences in themselves and others. The result is to promote positive relationships with all peers and reduce the number of bullying incidences in the schools.

Number of Donations: 6 | Posted over 2 years ago

Project Funded!

The Charity

Wings Learning Center

Educate, challenge and empower children with autism

Bring Light Activity

5 Donors

2 Projects since May, 2007

1 Active Project since March, 2008

Charity Info

Based in: Burlingame, California

Year founded: 2000

More Info »

Project Info

School is considered by many as a safe place to spend the formative years. Yet, every school day 160,000 students miss school because they are afraid of being bullied. It’s important to view bullying in a broader scale and through the life span of each child. Bullying behaviors that start during childhood can progress to other forms of abuse later in life.

As a group, children with special needs are frequent targets of bullying. Kids who act or think differently are more at risk than those with a physical disability. There seems to be less tolerance for the hidden disabilities such as autism. Autism a disorder that impairs the ability to understand and interact in the social environment, has been on the raise over the past years. Once a rare disability, it now effects 1 of every 150 children. Compared to studies of the general population, kids with Aspergers syndrome, a form of autism, are four times more likely to be bullied, twice as likely to be kicked in their privates, and twice as likely to be hit by their peers and siblings.

The first step in addressing the bullying in schools is to bring awareness and involvement. We are doing this through a program, called Friend 2 Friend, designed to build mutual friendships between children with autism and their peers. The following learning goals are addressed through this program:

• recognize and accept differences in themselves and others
• recognize individuals with autism as valuable friends
• recognize that is important to ask questions and express feelings
• understand the unique challenges of individuals with autism
• empathize with what it feels like to have autism, and
• promote positive relations with ALL peers

The focus of this program is to bring a short,1 hour, fun and interactive presentation to elementary and middle schools in the San Francisco Bay area. Children and young adults will learn practical tips that will help them interact with their peers.

Our goal is to bring this program to 10 schools in the Bay Area. The cost per school is $500. Total goal is to raise $5,000.

Bring Light is proud to partner with FoggyRock, a social site for family, friends, and supporters of individuals with autism.

Comments

Sandy W. wrote:

How can other states get this program. My grandson is 13, has Aspergers and is in 7th grade. He has been bullied since 1st grade. He has even been bullied by a teacher in front of a class of students, and YES, She still has her job.

Posted over 2 years ago