Emily Adams

5/14/2016
Psyc 689B
Community Collaboration Reflection and Summary
In Durham, there is an elementary, an intermediate, and a high school. According to
my supervisor, the school psychologist, the intermediate school had been in need of
a mental health intervention for quite some time. That school had a new principal,
and he was very motivated to plan some type of project to increase school
connectedness. The Durham Girl Scout Troop approached the principal in October of
2015 and expressed interest in providing a year-long bully-prevention project. The
troops goal was to earn a Silver Award which is a very prestigious award given to
troop members who complete a long-term community improvement project.
In order to determine what kind of action plan the school needed, we looked at the
California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) results from two years before. We chose the
survey to be our needs assessment because we would be administering it again this
year in March. That way we were able to have a pre- and post-test. The results of
the CHKS reported that bullying should be considered a top priority. This was due to
the high amounts of students experiencing verbal and physical violence at school,
as well as cyber-bullying. The key players in this project were the Durham Girl Scout
Troop, the intermediate school principal, the school psychologist, and two school
psychology interns (including myself).
October was Anti-Bullying month, so we organized a school rally centered around
bullying-prevention. The entire school attended, including the teachers. The Girl
Scouts performed a skit they made up about bullying and then shared about the
harmful effects of bulling. The principal and the school psychologist shared about
the bullying behaviors they had seen or had heard about on campus, and how to
make the right decisions when this happens, and where the victim can go for help.
The other intern, Stephanie, and I shared about treating peers with respect and how
to be a helpful bystander when you see someone being picked on. Personally, I was
terrified to say anything at this rally, but Stephanie really helped me through it. I
was grateful I didnt back out because I was so nervous. Then a ton of students
came down from the bleachers and we played cooperative games together. This
way we were all winners because everyone had to work together as a team for a
common goal. It was a completely new concept to the Girl Scout Troop. They
proposed different games that we should have played, but they all involved
someone winning and then getting a prize for it. So it was a good example for them
that we could have fun and not be competitive when playing a game.
The next event was a day on the quad in December. The Troop appealed to the
school board and got the district to pay for a large vinyl banner that said Band
Against Bullying. They had students sign it during their lunch break and after they
signed the banner, they received a bracelet that said Stand up. Speak out. Band
Against Bullying. It went smoothly and was a great accomplishment for the Troop
and spread awareness amongst students.

At the rally in October the school psychologist addressed a certain Instagram

account that was started by a student from the intermediate school who remained
anonymous. The account spread negative rumors about students and was wellknown around the school. After the rally, students talked about it with their parents.
The parents then came to the school, to my supervisors and my office in particular,
to address cyberbullying and their lack of familiarity with all the apps and sites their
kids are using. The principal, my supervisor, and I decided to have a parent night
where we present them with resources and information about how to get more
involved with their childs life on the internet. It was a big success and parents are
still telling us, 5 months later, how much the information has helped them.
I took the information and resources from the social media and cyber-bullying night
and created an info-board in our office. This way parents, teacher, and students
would be able to access these materials any time during school hours. I also
included information about health and mental health agencies in the community,
such as suicide lines, and low-cost health care info.
The last part of our project was hosting a theater group who spread awareness
about mental illnesses. This took place in March. They performed skits and sang
songs about having ADHD, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and eating disorders. I thought it
was great and luckily the students seemed to enjoy it as well. Some parts were
pretty cheesy but some of the students are pretty young, so cheese is ok
sometimes in my book.
I definitely wanted to do much more throughout the year regarding this topic, but
there were a lot of factors that prevented this from happening. One being the fact
that everything moves pretty slow in a school because everyone is still doing their
daily job, and now have a project on the side that may be difficult to make time for.
Another factor is feeling stifled by others in the planning committee. I was very
excited about this project in October and brainstormed at least 20 things we could
do throughout the year. This was only brainstorming, mind you, and I would not
have chosen to follow through with every single one of these ideas. My supervisor
encouraged me to research ideas we could use, but then when I presented her with
the list, she was verbally responsive to any of them. She then started researching
ideas, so I just assumed she didnt like mine. However, a couple weeks later she
proposed an idea to the other members of our project that we should do, but that
idea happened to be one I proposed to her which she seemed to dislike. She also
didnt mention that I was the one who found the idea, and that was my first
introduction to the world where people dont give credit where its due. There were
more of these examples throughout the year in Durham, but I digress.
As a post-test, we administered the CHKS to the intermediate school. The results
showed there was an increase in cyberbullying and verbal violence, and a decrease
in physical violence. There was a new Anti-Bullying Index on this years CHKS which
was very conveniently timed for us. This index is meant to measure how students
perceive their schools climate when it comes to bullying and harassing behaviors.
The results of this index showed that the majority of the students believed they felt
safe going to a staff member to report when they have been harassed. However, it

also indicated that students did not feel comfortable telling staff when someone
else was being bullied. This suggests that as a campus, we need to boost the
message about being a helpful bystander.
The next steps I suggest the school take include continuing to educate students
about bully prevention, hire a part-time school counselor (they currently dont have
any mental health employee on campus aside from the school psychologist), and
educating students about bystander effects. Overall, I think this project went very
well. I am proud of the work we did and hope the staff continue the bully-prevention
tone next year that we were trying to set all year long.