Celebrities and young people take a stand against bullying at star-studded Diana Award Anti-Bullying showcase
On 9th July, Facebook’s London offices hosted The Diana Award Anti-Bullying showcase to celebrate young people taking the lead in tackling bullying across England.
The event saw celebrities presenting young people with the Diana Anti-Bullying Award – which was set up for young people in memory of Princess Diana, and is now supported by her sons, the Duke of Cambridge and His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales.
Many of the young people celebrated at the event have experienced bullying themselves and are now actively tackling bullying both online and offline with outstanding results.
Videos of the schools Anti-Bullying work were screened to show how the student Anti-Bullying Ambassadors has made their schools a safe place to be.
At Thursday’s event, held at Facebook’s London offices:
Ronan Keating showed his support for the campaign for the first time, by presenting the Diana Anti-Bullying Award to Connor, Tom and Georgia from Sharnbrook Upper School and Community College in Bedfordshire for their work as anti-bullying ambassadors.
Facebook announced the UK launch of ‘Stay safe on Facebook’ - a set of tools for staying safe online that have been jointly created with young Diana Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and Facebook. Videos & resources can be found here: www.antibullyingpro.com/stay-safe-on-facebook
Musical duo Bars and Melody were presented with a Diana Anti-Bullying Award for their efforts in tackling bullying prior to and beyond their Britain’s Got Talent fame.
Waterloo Road’s Rebecca Craven, X Factor’s Jack Walton and CBBC’s Molly Rainford also attend the event in support of their showcase schools in Stockport, Saltburn-by-the-Sea and Doncaster. Each of the celebrities visited the above schools, and at the event a special film of the school’s anti-bullying work and the visit by the celebrity were played.
To date, over 16,000 young people have volunteered for and led the Diana Award Anti-Bullying Ambassadors programme in schools throughout the UK and Ireland. The Ambassadors are a network of young people who share and develop best practices and have received training to help them present bullying prevention initiatives and provide ongoing peer support.
Tessy Ojo, CEO, Diana Award said:
“We are incredibly proud to be celebrating the work that young people across England are doing to make their communities safer. The perception that bullying both online and offline is part of growing up is wrong and the Diana Award understands that early intervention is critical in the prevention of bullying behaviour. We know that a peer-to-peer approach to tackling bullying works and the success of the Diana Award Anti-Bullying Ambassadors proves it.
Facebook has been a partner of the Diana Awards for over four years, and supports the Diana Anti-Bullying Ambassadors programme. Facebook also runs an online bullying prevention centre which was developed in collaboration which the Diana Award. More detail can be found here: www.facebook.com/safety/bullying.
Rishi Saha, Head of Public Policy, UK, Facebook said:
“We’re pleased to be part of The Diana Award Anti-Bullying Ambassadors programme again this year, and to welcome so many inspirational young people to our offices today. We are proud of the work we've done together to develop new safety tools for young people which we are launching today. The Diana Award is an important initiative; these students and teachers are leading the way by tackling bullying in their schools and communities and we hope their work will continue to inspire more people to take action.”
Facebook has also collaborated with the Award over the creation of a set of tools for educating both young people and their schools about online safety. These include a set of bite-sized videos which have been created to help young people understand what they can do if they receive abuse and to offer advice on measures they can put in place to stay safe. Videos & resources can be found here: www.antibullyingpro.com/stay-safe-on-facebook
The event showcased the work of four schools including: Saltersgate Junior School in Doncaster, Freebrough Academy in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Stockport Academy in Stockport, and Sharnbrook Upper School and Community College in Bedfordshire. The Diana Award’s National Youth Board will also be presented with Diana Awards for their work in tackling bullying.
Attendees include: Ronan Keating, Diversity, Joe Swash, Dustin Lance Black, Only the Young, Nicola Stapleton, Blue’s Lee Ryan, Emmerdale’s Gemma Oaten, CBBC’s Molly Rainford, Waterloo Road’s Rebecca Craven, BBC Three’s Bad Education’s Jack Binstead, YouTuber Jake Mitchell, X Factor’s Jack Walton, and Britain’s Got Talent’s musical duo Bars and Melody
For interviews with the Diana Award Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and / or celebrities attending please contact: Emma Pelling 0207 624 7533 / 07958 558172
www.antibullyingpro.com / #AntiBullyingPro
