Blogger #4

Travis Luce
Amanda Reyes
English 105
10.8.15

     There are many organizations around the world that work together to stop bullying but there is one in particular that reigns over them all. stopbullying.gov is a resourceful website full of multiple links, articles and ways to prevent bullying. The $150 million will be used to give the site some much needed updates and will also be used to organize activities for victims of bully's and the bully's themselves, hopefully allowing the newly hired counselors to dig deeper as to why they bully.
     stopbullying.gov is a website that directly coordinates with the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Steering Committee, which is an effort directly led by the Dept. of Education. Both federal partners include representatives from the U.S. Dept's of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services and more. All of these help provide resources to the website and also help bring attention to what is necessary for the website. stopbullying.gov has achieved many success's in the short time it has been around. It has helped numerous teenager's and children in finding a voice in not only stopping the bullying but also preventing it from happening to others.
      Bullying plays a large role in today's society. With the adoption of more technology kids become more and more obsessive over their perceived social-media status. If you are not deemed "cool" online then you will be ridiculed. Unlike the age before the internet, in which kids were expected to just start swinging their fists at a bully if worse comes to worse, that can't really happen online. These children don't necessarily understand that online, you can just quite literally, walk away from the computer/phone. Furthermore, it is unfortunate because when they lose that social status of "being cool" they believe that do not belong anymore. Every group has their own determinations of "cool" and just because you don't fit in with one certain clique doesn't mean the people who really care about you don't think you're "cool". It all varies from group to group.
     With the $150 million primarily going to funding a salary of highly trained and well experienced counselors for stopbullying.gov and all their associates, part of the money would go to victims bullying and also would go to organizing group activities for bully victims. Some of these victims feel as if they are not wanted and including them in these activities will not only help their self-esteem but also their willingness to work with others and open up. One of the members that will play a key role in helping hand pick the counselors is First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, a strong supporter of any and all anti-bullying programs.
     After receiving the grant of $150 million we plan to begin the long and tedious process of sorting through applications for counselors. All the while we will immediately begin to organize events like group sports, carnivals, and more. Finally, stopbullying.gov as a group will pick a handful of family's to help financially who have had/or do currently have children who are victims of bullying. We want to make people aware of the hurt they do to people when they bully others. That is why we will also be putting up motivational posters and posters that will encourage anyone to report anything if they see anything. Our organization wants only the TOP notch counselors for our group and because we will be picking the top 1% of our applicants we will be giving a large salary of $100,000 per year, benefits included, to our counselors. Only 5 counselors will be picked while the large majority of the money will be used to rent out amusement parks, to organize sports at the local park, and also creating motivational items to put around schools and parks.