SACSC Workshops and Events

Event Descriptions

Students Creating Dramatic Change Youth Action Conference

On May 29, drama students from Gibbons, Harry Balfour, J.D. Bracco and Westpark Middle Schools shared their performances on bullying with 160 fellow students at the Youth Creating Dramatic Change conference at Barnett House. This event was the culminating activity in a SACSC Youth Action project designed to address relational
aggression in junior high schools, a project that was made possible through funding from Alberta Education.

Each school displayed remarkable creativity and passion for their subject matter. The performances included a mock game show, various musical numbers, and a dramatic presentation of the events leading up to the 1997 murder of Victoria student Reena Virk. The students’ methods of delivery may have differed, but each play shared a common theme: the silence of bystanders allows bullying to continue.

During an intermission, Kelly Aleman, a Youth Action facilitator from Westpark Middle School, asked the audience: “How many of you have been bullied before?” Almost all of the students in the packed auditorium raised their hands. When he asked how many students wish someone had intervened, the same hands quickly shot up. After their day at the Youth Action conference, these students are clearly eager to break the silence.

Learn more about our 2008-2009 Youth Action projects in the ATA Magazine online.

Although this project focuses on relational aggression, Youth Action can target any topic students are interested in. During the projects, students:

• identify and address specific issues or interests by conducting research among their peers
• develop, undertake and evaluate fun projects within the school
• adopt leadership roles and improve research, communication and presentation skills

Youth Action Topics can include:

• Bullying
• Diversity
• Global Issues
• Drugs
• Gangs
• Self-Esteem
• Managing Conflict
• Sexual Harassment

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SACSC Addressing Bullying Behaviour Workshops

Focus on Cyberbullying

In many ways, character education had fallen behind advances in technology. This half-day workshop aims to close this gap by providing participants with resources and strategies to help them prevent and respond to cyberbullying. Participants will also become familiar with the causes and consequences of cyberbullying.

Focus on Relational Aggression

Relational aggression has been defined as psychological (social/emotional) bullying between people in relationships; a form of aggression where the group is used as a weapon. It can take the form of gossip, rumours, or social exclusion. Relational aggression is harder to detect than physical bullying, but it can be extremely damaging. This workshop will teach participants to identify signs of relational aggression among youth and provide strategies to address it.

Toward a Safe and Caring Community Workshops

SACSC offers violence prevention and bullying intervention workshops to communities across Alberta. Once a community has members trained to be SACSC facilitators, the program is sustainable, with low material costs for holding additional workshops in the community.

The SACSC research-based adult workshops are based on two premises: (1) that non-violent values and behaviours must be taught, modeled and reinforced by all the adults in a child's life and (2) that children are the responsibility of all adults in the community. The workshops provides participants with a variety of bullying prevention and intervention tools, as well as insights into factors relating to bullying and rebuilding positive relationships after the bullying incidents have been resolved (i.e. rebuilding self-esteem, anger management and conflict resolution skills, etc) This assists adults in enhancing protective factors and reducing risk factors among children and youth.

The workshop topics are:

Workshop 1: Living Respectfully
Adults will learn how to inspire, model and reinforce respectful behaviour in children and youth. This workshop engages participants in a number of activities to practice the skills of living respectfully: creating a vision of a safe and caring community, using techniques to move from blaming to taking responsibility for one's own actions and needs, and identifying and practicing the tools of respect. Topics include respect for self, other people, other living things, the environment and property.

Workshop 2: Developing Self-Esteem and Building Resiliency
Adults will form an understanding of, and model and reinforce behaviours that enhance and repair damaged self-esteem in children and youth and take steps to build resiliency in youth. Participants in this workshop practice strategies that create an environment in which young people can succeed and learn to recognize their abilities and the role effort plays in success.

Workshop 3: Respecting Diversity and Preventing Prejudice
Lack of respect for differences and prejudice are two major causes of bullying behaviour in young people. By learning how to develop respect for diversity in young people, adults are helping to prevent one of the root causes of bullying behaviour. Participants in this workshop examine the issues that arise from a culturally diverse population and examine teaching strategies that build understanding and respect while diminishing prejudice. The emphasis is on the important role adults play in modelling and reinforcing respectful and responsible behaviour that enhances peacefulness and cooperation.

Workshop 4: Managing Anger and Dealing with Bullying
This workshop examines the negative and positive aspects of anger and outlines a process for managing anger. It also defines the roles of those involved in bullying behaviour, outlines the causes of bullying behaviour and proposes strategies for eliminating bullying.

A schedule for each of the following municipalities to be announced: Edmonton , Calgary , Red Deer , Medicine Hat , Grande Prairie , Fort McMurray , Lethbridge .

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2009 Creating Safe Spaces WaffleMania Breakfast

The Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities is holding its annual WaffleMania fundraising breakfast on June 9 at the Crowne Plaza-Chateau Lacombe in Edmonton. This event is a chance to learn about the Society's work and raise funds for continued programming. The breakfast will include a special presentation by junior high students who are working to stop bullying in their schools through the SACSC relational aggression Youth Action project.

Please help us support Alberta youth by purchasing a ticket to attend our fundraising event:

Creating Safe Spaces—WaffleMania Breakfast
June 9, 2009, 7:30–9:00 am
Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe, Edmonton

To purchase a ticket (tax receiptable portion $70) please contact Patti Giersch by phone: 780-447-9487, 1-800-232-7208 (in Alberta) or email: office@sacsc.ca.

Table Package—$1,000
Individual Tickets—$100/ticket

Please click here to download a ticket form, a sponsorship information sheet or a backgrounder on the Society and its programs.

Your support will contribute to the Society’s violence prevention programming and the development of new resources for Alberta children.

The Society would like to thank the following Gold Sponsors of this event:

Past Event Descriptions

2008 Creating Safe Spaces WaffleMania Breakfast

More than 160 corporate, education, government and community partners attended our 2008 WaffleMania breakfast, making this the Society's most successful fundraising event to date. Special guests included Honorary Event Chair Mayor Stephen Mandel, the Society's Honorary Patron Marie Stelmach, and a variety of students from Edmonton schools who have benefitted from the Society's programming.

The breakfast included a special presentation by students from Strathcona High School who participated in the Youth Action pilot project during the 2006/2007 school year. Their project, entitled "Words Hurt," created awareness of how prejudicial language, even when used unintentionally, can cause great harm to the school community.

The Society would like to thank the following Gold Sponsors of this event:

Thank You!

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Students Stepping Forward — Youth Action Conference

Date: May 29, 2007
Location: Barnett House, 11010 142 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5N 2R1

Students and teachers joined Henry “Gizmo” Williams , former Edmonton Eskimo, to learn about the safe and caring Youth Action Program, and how students can take an active role in affecting issues that are important to them.

Conference participants attended presentations by students piloting the Youth Action Program, learned about the process, the students' projects, and the successes and challenges they have experienced throughout the program.

Teachers in attendance were introduced to program resources and the Youth Action Process and learned about the impact that youth action can have on their students and their school.

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