The Reach Project
EACH is pleased to announce we are working in partnership with leading national charity UK Youth to reach out to young people affected by homophobic, sexist and cyberbullying.
Reach is the dynamic project of EACH and funded by The Big Lottery. Its aim, by 2014, is to create resources for both schools and informal youth settings to help them challenge the increasingly widespread problem of cyberhomophobia and homophobic bullying affecting children as young as ten-years-old. To inform this resource we are drawing together the voices of young people. Up to now their voice has been rarely heard but here their experiences will be incorporated into a groundbreaking resource combining powerful evidence, practical ideas and strategies for adults working with young people to use.
Reach has already engaged with hundreds of young people in North Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset: gathering their opinions and experiences of homophobic, sexist and cyberbullying. Evidence from Reach’s Cybersurveys undertaken in 2011 demonstrates that many young people are engaged and empathise with the issues, whether they have been bullied or not and whether they are a child, an older teenager or young adult who is heterosexual, lesbian, gay bisexual or transgender.
Young people are being encouraged to become members of a Youth Board comprising individuals with direct or indirect experience of homophobic bullying or cyberhomophobia (whether this was being bullied or being the bully).
In March our first Reach Youth Board residential will be held, where participants will be introduced to the EACH and UK Youth team plus UK Youth’s Personal Achievement Awards and E-safety. Structured and informal activities will be held to establish rapport, build the group’s identity and to record, design and create further contributions to the Reach resource. For more information, take a look at our how to get involved pages.
This project will be one of the largest youth led enquiries into the under-reported and pervasive problem of homophobic, sexist and cyberbullying, culminating in a valuable resource for schools and youth agencies. Regular project updates will be posted on the Reach pages.
