Stand Up! Squad returns
IN 2015, Dubbo Photo News commenced the ‘Stand Up! Squad’ campaign which focused on bringing awareness of bullying through many situations and age demographics.
This year, in 2022, we want to kick things off again and highlight the bullying which remains unacknowledged.
Dubbo Photo News will be relaunching the campaign to stand up against bullying, how to protect yourself, realising when you might be hurting someone and provide reliable sources.
Over the years, the Dubbo Photo News has raised community awareness regarding workplace bullying, disability bullying and child abuse while providing sources and contacts for further information.
In these ever-changing times, it is important to take a step back and re-educate ourselves on the long term affects of bullying.
Winner of the 2021 NAIDOC “Unity Better Together” Award and wellbeing, learning and support team member, Amy Welbourne (nee Mines) shared that the Dubbo community can only become stronger by understanding the definition of what bullying actually is.
Ms Welbourne, pictured, previously worked with Headspace and heavily encourages young students to understand bullying and a healthy wellbeing through the Grow Your Mind program.
She told Dubbo Photo News that bullying is not only a child’s issue, but addresses that “adults need to think about their own behaviours and how this affects the young people in their lives”.
She expressed that the education of understanding bullying and how to reflect on behaviours has changed since previous generations and the mentally of “treat people how you want to be treated” is not as simple as it used to be. “Emotional awareness and emotional intelligence are something that we can learn as adults and teach our children,” she continued, saying people need education on how to address emotional needs with learning strategies and seeking support, rather than turning to violence or other anti-social behaviour. Ms Welbourne draws comparison between mental health, self-confidence and self-esteem when describing the term ‘bullying’ she continued saying that people “allow negative thoughts or actions of others to intrude their minds” leading them to points of depression, anxiety, and suicide.
She said there’s a practice of mindfulness that encourages positive mental health, she added saying the “sooner we learn to practice gratitude daily and think about what and who we are grateful for and recall positive affirmations to ourselves each day”.
Whether you remain named or anonymous, we would like to share your story. Please get in contact with Dubbo Photo News if you have experienced bullying on any scale or want to raise awareness.