In honor of National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, Blue Ridge Job Corps held a Unity Day on Friday, October 19. Throughout the day, staff and students were distributed into small groups, and moved from location to location across campus to participate in a variety of bullying awareness and prevention exercises. Privilege walks, positivity yarn, and bullying testimonials were some of the activities that helped students understand different types of bullying and how to prevent them. Additionally, groups watched the movie Cyberbully, which focuses on a high school student who is a victim of abuse via social media, engaged a discussion group afterward. To further show unity, all staff and students wore matching anti-bullying t-shirts in the official color of orange for bullying prevention.
This programming created a great atmosphere for conversation and interaction between staff and students. “Bullying is a very serious issue that needs awareness not only with our students but with young people overall,” said Juvenel Levros, Training Director. One activity had students write positive messages which would be stapled together to create a “unity chain” which will be displayed on center. The hope is for the chain to continue to grow as students support one another by writing more and more positive messages.
Former Blue Ridge Business Community Liaison William A. Fields visited center to lead staff and students in a balloon release as a culmination of the day’s activities. Positive messages were written to victims of bullying throughout the world and attached to orange balloons. The balloons were then released in hopes to spread just a little bit of positivity and hope to those victims. The positivity could be felt all over the Center as students wore their anti-bullying shirts long after the program was officially over. The message will not stop here, however, as a formal anti-bullying committee has been formed at Blue Ridge Job Corps to ensure that students continue to understand the importance of bullying prevention and spread this message with others.