Oct. 24 - 28 , 2016
Be the Change Project:
1) To raise self-esteem, they arranged to provide special gift stockings for 10 less fortunate student in their school anonymously. “For my group project we filled up 10 stockings with little gifts that we got donated from local businesses to give to students in St Joseph’s Collegiate. The students chosen have had financial struggles within their family and self-esteem issues because of it. We delivered the stockings anonymously on December 20th at the end of school in their lockers. The students were in grades 9-12.”
2) To create awareness about the importance of positivity in life and uplifting spirits with acts of kindness, they made hearts with special quotes to distribute throughout the school to about 350 students. “My group’s project was to brighten the students’ day for all students through uplifting quotes. We folded origami hearts and put inspiring quotes with a survey. We handed out the hearts on December 15, 2016 to all of the students in SJC.“ Some of the comments received included: “Many people’s faces had lit up when I handed them a heart and that was very inspiring to see. I believe our project went really well. My group and I witnessed a lot of people posting the hearts on social media and saying things like ‘This was such a nice surprise!’ or ‘These are super cute!’“; “The impression it left was great, many kids seemed happier and the feedback was mostly positive.”
3) To raise female self-esteem and empowerment and to raise male awareness regarding behaviour with women, the group brought in guest presenter Alison Springer to work with female students and male counsellor with male students. The project impacted over 155 students; “the audience was SJC’s grade 9 and 10 students. There were about 45 grade 9 girls and 35 grade 9 boys. There were 39 grade 10 girls and 39 grade 10 boys.” One student said, “I feel that overall our presentations went really well, especially the grade 9s. The three of us peeked in at the end of their presentation and the girls were so enthusiastic and invested in Alison’s talk. The results of the boys survey were positive. Most students had an increase in self confidence. The grade 10s also had a positive experience; even though some girls did not take the presentation serious, the ones who did had a great time and will spread the message to others.”
4) To raise further awareness about the importance of self-esteem, they prepared a PowerPoint presentation and lead a discussion about self-esteem and presented to 75 students in grade 8. “Our final project was a before and after survey to get an idea about how the grade 8’s viewed themselves, based on the results we did a prezi presentation about self positivity and had them do an activity where they wrote positive words and encouraging phrases and we then hung it up in their classroom to remind them how unique but special they all are.” “We had a lot of more positive answers on the survey we collected after our presentation as well and they said comments about themselves like beautiful and amazing or talented or funny, rather than worthless, ugly, rude, and fat. We were very happy with the results from the second survey because we could tell that the positivity level had increased.” “I think that we made a difference to the grade 8 students by influencing a positive impact to their self-esteem.”
Fall 2012
Be the Change Project: We Are One
St. Joseph’s participants had a focus on the school theme “We are One” and completed several projects:
1. Ongoing Facebook page to combat bullying and stereotyping;
2. Smile lockers with relevant supporting notes to make individual students feel appreciated;
3. Testimonies of personal cultural connections so others can understand how immigrants feel (powerpoint);
4. Positive bathroom quotes to enhance self-esteem;
5. Poem on multiculturalism written by a Be the Change student last year made into a video;
6. “Be (You) rself” presentation to junior high girls and next semester to senior high girls; [video available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-I5QeB1KEw]
7. Anti-bullying week: ‘Defeat the label ’day (re. hurtful words); pink pancake day and wear pink (anti homophobia); great banner with commitment not to bully for students to sign;
8. challenge of the week e.g. replace the negative with a positive, reach out to a new friend, paint your pinkie pink, come to school one day without makeup;
9. A flash mob on anti-stereotyping –“Why can’t we be friends?”
10. Art in high traffic area of school - 4 panels – first 3 joined by chains: gossip, we all hear it, we all speak it, #4 be the one to break the chain;
11. “cyber bullying to gr 7-12; school prayer (suicide awareness)
Spring 2012
Be the Change Project: Be YOUrself
September 26 - 30, 2011
Be the Change Project: Youth Empowerment
St. Joseph's Collegiate in Brooks, Alberta has had a number of students participate in the CONNECTIONS program. One of the projects they developed was a video called "You are Beautiful." Written, performed, and directed by St. Joseph's students, the video focuses on acceptance and self-respect. Click on the link below to view this video.
Spring 2011
Be the Change Project:
The student organizers had done a presentation to our school grades 7-11, and we had a some info on bullying in our school, a video from YouTube, then we presented a skit of 5 parts; first was a girl being bullied in the class room, then in the change room, on facebook, at home, and then a skit of the girl being pushed and being called names, in the end she ends up killing herself. Between every scene we had monologues and the whole presentation was super powerful, we also had a video at the end, and then we all bleed red by Ronnie Dunn. After the skit and presentation was done we had each of the classes go into small groups and reflect on different things that stood out to them, and had the teachers ask them how they can help to prevent bullying.
