DoSomething.org has had it with bullying and the adults who don’t stand up and do something. With the help of spokesperson Victoria Justice and the much buzzed about documentary, Bully – released in theaters March 30th – DoSomething.org is giving teens a chance to address the realities of bullying in their schools and identify ways to make a change through the first ever student-led nationwide bullying census.
When bullying is witnessed, teens only intervene 11% of the time, while adults interfere even less so. Shockingly, most of the time there is NO intervention. Instead of continuing on the trend of issuing statistics gleaned from adult insights, DoSomething.org is finally lending a voice to those directly affected by bullying: the teens themselves.
Running through May, and acting as the kick-off initiative for the BULLY film social action campaign, DoSomething.org’s Bully Project urges students to speak up about bullying via a short Facebook quiz. The questions were created for teens by teens – namely those in DoSomething.org’s Youth Advisory Council, comprised of 200 young people across the country. Once completed, the students will get immediate results stating how their school is rated against the nationwide average, and they are encouraged to share the census and results with all of their Facebook friends. The census has been vetted by experts who develop sustainable solutions to bullying, and who are advising on how to use the data in meaningful, empirical ways to bring about lasting change.
At the close of the campaign, DoSomething.org and BULLY will issue the results, consisting of a national report card with information gathered from the students themselves.
Teens who participate by taking the short quiz will have the chance of being randomly selected to receive a college scholarship of up to $10,000. Bonus! The more people who share the census with their Facebook friends, the more the scholarship increases, making this the first ‘social scholarship’ DoSomething.org has ever offered.
Victoria Justice isn’t tolerating bullying either. She has joined DoSomething.org’s anti-bullying brigade that includes celebs such as Vinny Guadagnino and Brittany Snow, to create a Public Service Announcement (PSA) encouraging students and fans alike to take five minutes out of their day to help improve the state of bullying in our school systems. SparkNotes is also supporting the fight against bullies and joining DoSomething.org’s Bully Project by spreading the word about the campaign to their vast student audience.
“If we all stand together and bring awareness to bullying, we can help put an end to it,” said campaign spokesperson, Victoria Justice. “Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself.”
“Our documentary sets out to expose the day to day often shocking and devastating reality many children face in schools around the nation by following the lives of children, families, schools, and communities impacted by the atrocities of bullying,” said Lee Hirsch, BULLY director and Emmy-award winning filmmaker. “DoSomething.org’s Bully Project is making it possible to now reach these affected children all over the nation and give us an opportunity to further empower everyone to get up and do something about it.”
“This project is one my teenage self would actually like to do,” says Catie Miller, director of business development at DoSomething.org. “By joining forces with BULLY, we’re able to help teens turn the tables – now it’s their turn to issue a grade that could potentially change lives.”
To view Victoria Justice’s PSA and get started on ‘DoSomething.org’s Bully Project,’ visit www.dosomething.org/bullyproject or text “BULLY” to 877877.
