by Collin Lessing, Joining Vision and Action
Today the staff at JVA is joining people around the country in wearing purple clothing as part of a movement to raise awareness for the bullying-related suicides that have taken place in recent weeks. The loss of these youth following bullying related to sexual identity has broken our hearts and left us wondering how this crisis should be addressed. Antonia Alvarez, the Director of Youth Suicide and Bullying Prevention at Mental Health America of Hawaii took the time to share some of her thoughts with Nonprofit Street.
“Bullying isn’t new, but there are so many new aspects of bullying that people aren’t familiar with,” said Antonia.
Antonia spends time in middle schools and high schools training students in prevention and intervention practices. This will be the first year that students in elementary school will be trained as well.
“We can’t pretend this isn’t happening with our younger students. Nationally, suicide happens as young as eight years old,” explained Antonia. “A few of the recent suicides in the news were children who were only 13 years old.”
The deaths of these middle school-age students and the other youth who have been lost to suicide have given rise to “It gets better”—a movement on YouTube and social media that involves LGBT adults who had similar experiences of bullying during their childhood. As the name of the viral movement would suggest, these adults are reminding LGBT students that it will get better as they get older.
“It’s a really great project, and it’s incredible that so many people are standing up and speaking. But it’s not enough,” said Antonia. “These children shouldn’t have to wait five years for it to get better. It’s our job—the community, the schools, the parents—we’re all accountable.”
Holding ourselves accountable can be more challenging than it sounds.
“The reality is most adults aren’t comfortable talking about suicide. People need to be empowered with information and resources so they can get involved. The more successful we are with prevention, the less prevention we’ll need.”
Resources
Starting these conversations can begin with becoming aware of the information and resources that are out there. The following links can help you get started.
https://www.drugrehab.com/guides/bullying/
http://suicidehotlines.com/national.html
The Recovery Center – Drug and Alcohol Treatment Resources
Love the picture and would love to know if other people have seen a lot of purple today and I am hoping that this is the beginning of the movement to change the world!
Excellent article and I am glad to see so much purple in your photo. I am wearing purple but don’t see anyone else. I hope you can follow up with more info on what Colorado nonprofits are doing related to such bullying.
As a student at East High School, I was both surprised and overjoyed at the sheer amount of students that wore purple today. The halls were filled with purple in between classes and in all of my classes more than half the students were wearing purple. This is an important issue and so many students took it to heart. I am always so proud of awareness and acceptance that exist at east, but i was especially proud today.
I just wanted to say thanks for the great conversation and for taking interest in this very important topic. I also wanted to add that the website for our organziation (Mental Health America of Hawai`i) has some other great resources: http://www.mentalhealth-hi.org.
Thanks again, JVA. You all look great in purple!
Thanks Antonia! I added your link in the story.
Collin