Wednesday 15th November 2017
ANTI-BULLYING WEEK 2017
Ulster GAA in conjunction with The Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum (NIABF) and the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), are calling on all units of the Association to take part in Anti-Bullying Week between 13th and 17th November 2017. This year’s theme for the campaign is “All Different, All Equal” which looks at how we can help children and young people celebrate what makes them, and others, unique and help them understand why it’s important that every child feels included in sport and is able to be themselves without fear of bullying.
The GAA Tackling Bullying Programme is a resource developed by the GAA to provide assistance to members to help them deal with incidents of Bullying. The two-hour training workshop is suitable for Coaches, Parents, committee members and other Club personnel and also includes a range of publicity materials for Clubs. The workshop aims to equip participants with tools and skills that will enable them to identify, prevent and resolve incidents of Bullying that may occur in their clubs. Bullying is an issue that causes many problems within our clubs and communities, and we encourage all clubs to consider these top 5 tips:
Cyber Bullying – This is bullying behaviour that takes place via mobile phone or through the internet via email/instant messaging/social networking sites/Texts/messages or images that are sent or posted on sites, which hurt, intimidate or embarrass another person. Cyber Bullying is no different from any other forms of bullying in that the behaviour is the same and the impact no less devastating, and therefore incidents of cyber bullying should be treated as though they happened in real time. If you are aware of someone being cyberbullied, please consider the following:
Our Games – Our Code, the Code of Best Practice in Youth Sport for the GAA includes the Anti- Bullying Policy, which aims to adopt a whole organisational approach to addressing bullying and provides advice and support to clubs in the area of Safeguarding. We remind all clubs to implement the Code of Behaviour with all relevant personnel in your club including players/coaches/committee members/parents/referees and supporters at the start of each season. It is also appropriate at this time of year to remind you to make sure that all those working with children and young people in your club have been appropriately trained and adequately vetted prior to commencing work in the club.
For more information or to organise a workshop in your area or club, please contact 02837521900 / Bernie.fox.ulster@gaa.ie .
Finally, we take this opportunity to thank you for helping us to achieve our aim of creating and maintaining the safest possible environment for young people and children in the Association.