Beatbullying is the UK’s leading bullying prevention charity. Founded in 1999, Beatbullying empowers young people to lead bullying prevention campaigns in their schools and local communities, and builds the capacity of local communities to sustain the work. Beatbullying has indirectly and directly worked with over 700,000 + young people over the last 5 years, assisting and supporting young people that are being bullied, re-educating and changing the behaviour of young people that bully, and preventing bullying in schools and communities across the UK.
CyberMentors is a unique and pioneering programme to tackle cyberbullying and help keep safe the millions of children and young people that use social networking, mobile and text messaging services. CyberMentors are young volunteers who help, assist and support their peers in an online virtual community, as well as on mobiles, helping to safeguard themselves and act as mentors and guides to other young people.
CyberMentors is similar to existing peer mentoring schemes, except that it exists in an online capacity. CyberMentors work with their peers in a virtual environment, assisting and mentoring and ensuring that their peers are safe and can report cyberbullying safely and get the peer to peer support they need.
Young people are spending more and more time online and on mobile phones. This is how they communicate with each other, they are familiar with the technology, and they feel that it is “their space”, free from adults who do not use it or understand it. Being given the choice of getting help and support online using new technology is therefore appealing to young people.
Young people who have been bullied often feel a deep sense of shame and fear, and so can find it hard to talk to someone face to face, or even pick up a phone to ask for help. CyberMentors, therefore, makes it easier for a young person to tell someone they are being bullied and ask for support, without feeling judged or under any pressure, in terms of time or otherwise. Young people can express themselves more, and feel more confident online, rather than when looking for help face to face or via the telephone.
CyberMentors Digital Volunteers operate from all over the UK. They are young people at school, college and university, and they all provide a unique and pioneering service by volunteering online through CyberMentors.org.uk, helping and assisting the thousands of children and young people affected by bullying in the UK. For more information about how to become a CyberMentor volunteer, please visit http://www.beatbullying.org/home.html .
Case study
My name is Chloe Morton, I’m 22 years old and fresh out of University as of 2008. During my time at University I chose to get involved with volunteering through my University’s organisation - Horizons. Volunteering for me, took over. I loved meeting new people, understanding different ways of life, different walks of life and being privileged enough to be with people through some very difficult times.
My graduation was just around the corner and I took on some part time work at the University, which allowed me to keep working with our volunteering organisation. With less time on my hands than when I was a student, I was careful not to get involve with too many projects. However, I received an email about the CyberMentors project by the charity BeatBullying and I signed up!
The CyberMentors initiative was ticking all the boxes. It was a worthy cause based on alarming research, it had real direction and purpose. Not only that but from a practical side, it was virtual, it was flexible and we learnt a new set of skills. The launch happened and the site attracted many children and my training kicked in straight away. My hope was to fulfil my role the best I could, making sure everyone was safe.
Then, out of the blue, I received a message telling me of a new role within Beatbullying itself – mentoring and helping signpost the young people to the website, would I be interested? Yes. Being employed doing something that I love – couldn’t be better. So I joined the team, received a lot of welcomes and communication despite working remotely and haven’t look back since.
