Inside HRSA - July 2007
 
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Dr. Duke Takes HRSA's "Stop Bullying Now!" Message to Disney

Administrator Betty Duke took HRSA's Stop Bullying Now! message to the Radio Disney airways in Orlando last month.

During a 30-minute radio interview, three middle-schoolers — better known as Disney Kidcasters — asked Dr. Duke a series of questions about bullying and what can be done to stop it.

The Kidcasters were particularly concerned about cyber-bullying through on-line bulletin boards and games. Dr. Duke responded by encouraging listeners to visit www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov for useful ideas and tools.

HRSA's interest in combating bullying began in earnest in 2004 with the launch of Stop Bullying Now!, a national public awareness and prevention campaign directed at young people age 9 to 13. The campaign's message to kids is: you can play a key role in stopping bullying at schools and in other social environments.

The www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov Web site receives up to 20,000 visitors in an average week. The site contains animated stories of various characters who are bullied by classmates; questions following the animations ask viewers how they might react.

 

Dr. Duke talks with Disney "Kidcasters" at the Radio Disney studio.
Dr. Duke talks with "Kidcasters" at the Radio Disney studio in Orlando.

Listen to the Radio Disney Show (30 minutes) 28 MB.
Used by permission of Radio Disney.

Radio Disney Show transcript

In addition to the animated chronicles, the Web site also contains television and radio public service announcements (PSAs) that have been distributed nationwide through the National Association of Broadcasters member stations. As of 2006, PSA campaign ads had aired 14,000 times through $1.9 million in donated advertising space, and also spent years in rotation on “The More You Know” ads on NBC.

The campaign also has available print PSAs and a resource kit about bullying prevention programs and activities that can be put into practice at the school or community level. HRSA has distributed more than 20,000 resource kits since the campaign began.

More recently, HRSA employees have expanded the reach of the campaign by working with Federal partners in the Departments of Education and Justice, and with community-based groups like the Boys and Girls Clubs, said CAPT Stephanie Bryn, a project officer in the Maternal and Child Health Bureau in charge of the effort.

“Because bullying happens primarily where young people often congregate,” Bryn said, “these partnerships have been crucial to the campaign's success. That was key, and that's what we really did right.”

The Stop Bullying Now! campaign appears to have played a significant role in the growing national awareness of the public health dangers of bullying. Before the campaign began, no states had laws combating bullying; now about 25 states do.

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