What's New at the Centre?

New Section Added to Centre’s Website: “What’s in the News?“ option.

February 29 – 5^th Annual Pink Shirt Day! Get ready…everyone is encouraged to wear something pink to symbolize that society will not tolerate bullying any day of the week! Information about Anti-Bullying Day can be found here. For Pink Shirt Day information in Punjabi Click here

New Report: ‘Measuring Up’: A Self-Examination of Police Receptivity to tThe Extrajudicial Measures Referral Database
The introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2003 contributed to a paradigm shift regarding how police should respond to youth crime. For less serious offences, under this ACT, police MUST consider two options: taking no action; or, making a referral to a community program. This intervention process, known as an extrajudicial measure, is intended to prevent youth from committing further offences and is an alternate to laying a criminal charge. However, while the YCJA has led to positive changes, various challenges still exist. Both the literature and participants in this current study have provided a variety of insightful recommendations regarding how extrajudicial measures can become more widely embraced. These are listed in a newly released report following field testing of the extrajudicial measures database.

To review the short training video, click here
To read the news release, click here
To read the report click here
Contact Annette.Vogt@ufv.ca for further information

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February 2012 e-Newsletter

2010 Early Childhood Education Library Catalogue
The BC Centre for Safe Schools and Communities has published its 2010 Early Childhood Education Library Catalogue. The Catalogue lists more than 300 items covering more than 60 themes, including Infants, Child Development, Parenting, Social Skills, and More. Click here to download a print version of the 2010 Catalogue or to search our Online Library Catalogue.

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PAWS the Safety Beagle: An Early Learning Resource

PAWS is a comprehensive early childhood learning resource to assist daycare, preschool, and kindergarten teachers in promoting social and emotional literacy, and personal safety among children ages 4 to 6 years old. This recently completed resource consists of three storybooks for children (Being Kind, Celebrating Differences, Staying Safe), a teacher's guide, and supporting materials to aid learning. These kits have been field tested across BC in Strong Start, Success by 6, and Kindergarten classrooms. If you are interested in obtaining this resource, please call or write the Centre at 1-888-224-7233 or safeschoolscommunities.ufv.ca

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What else is happening?

CIT Training Event
Every year events such as deaths, car accidents, acts of violence, or natural disasters happen that have the potential to impact the children/ youth in our schools and communities in profound ways. While we cannot prevent many of these things from happening, we can ensure that the professionals who work with our children/ youth are skilled at providing support after these events with the aim of building resilience and heath.
The focus of this training is to ensure that school district(s) critical incident response teams have the skills and resources to provide a timely and effective response. See flyer for more information. Critical Incident Team Leaders are invited to attend a session on Jan 24th to discuss issues, training, effective practices, etc. Contact Rissa Wilson at rwilson@sd43.bc.ca for further information.

Free resources to help prevent peer victimization and bullying 

WITS goes online
Bullying and peer victimization place children at increased risk for a range of physical and mental health problems. The WITS Programs have been developed and tested in BC For more information, view a four minute introductory video describing the program: http://vimeo.com/12864214 This is a free resource that can be accessed by teachers, parents, community leaders or others e in the province. Download here: www.witsprogram.ca.


Media Awareness Network to launch Privacy Pirates: An Interactive Unit on Online Privacy (Ages 7-9)
In the last year or two many writers and researchers have been trying to correct the common perception that young people do not care about privacy. While the public may finally be getting the message that teenagers do value their privacy -- as they define it -- the idea that younger children have any personal information worth protecting is still a new one. But given the early age at which children are now going online, there are many reasons to be concerned about their privacy and personal information. On October 21, MNet will release a new resource -- Privacy Pirates: An Interactive Unit on Online Privacy (Ages 7-9)—that introduces children to the concept of online privacy and teaches them to distinguish between information that is appropriate to give out and information better kept private. http://www.media-awareness.ca/blog/index.cfm?commentID=181

The Fourth R (RELATIONSHIPS) is a prevention program that diminishes youth violence, substance use and unsafe sexual behaviour while offering healthy alternatives. Since 2000, the Fourth R has developed and promoted programs specific to BC Planning 10, Alternative Programs and Aboriginal Perspectives. The Fourth R is an evaluated program. Training is available in Northern and Eastern BC and for all school districts that have not had a Fourth R training in recent years! Please contact Janet Eviston, BC’s Fourth R BC Leader, for training opportunities and details! Email: jeviston@vsb.bc.ca.

3D Wired Safety: Bullying and Rethinking the Human Narrative
Sir Ken Robinson is a leading edge thinker who has developed various thought-provoking materials regarding the need to change our educational systems. Not only does he communicate his messages in novel ways, but he links the notion of empathy to the development of civilization in a way that has implications for viewing bullying in schools. Listen to some of his you-tube presentations, presented by 3D Wired Safety, to consider how this might apply to your context. Click here for further information.

Anti-Bullying Legislation in Canada
The BC Human Rights Coalition has been working with BullyFreeBC to highlight the need for anti-bullying legislation in BC. In consultation with its members, BullyFreeBC has proposed changes to the Workers Compensation Act of BC. This would include amending the Act to include a section dealing with "Personal Harassment". To learn more, visit www.bchrcoalition.org/documents/NewsletterMAY2011.pdf