Title: Leading out Loud: Assisting in an Anti-bullying Campaign
Community Partner: Young Women Leaders Program and the Women Studies Department
Group Members: Valerie T, Kelly Q and Joannivette M
Submission Date: Feb 15th
2. Community Partner Profile:
Community Profile Name: Young Women Leaders Program
Mission and Goals:
"The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP) is a mentoring program sponsored by the UCF Women’s Studies Program. In mentoring pairs and small groups of Big and Little Sisters, participants focus on learning competence and autonomy, independent thinking, empowerment, self-esteem, and encouraging girls to think about their futures" (Young Women Leaders Program).
Political or Social Basis for Organization:
"YWLP promotes middle school girls’ leadership abilities, pairing collegiate women with middle school girls."Currently YWLP has partnered with their local community and the national AAUW to create a peer advocacy campaign to help students to empower themselves and others to stop bullying and forms of aggression among their peers. This project is called “leading Out Loud (LOL)” and it works by teaching the YWLP Little Sisters to become peer advocates at their middle schools. Ultimately this project will result in a field trip to UCF where the Little Sisters will work with UCF faculty, students and their Big Sisters to host anti-bullying workshops for local fifth grade boys and girls.
General Needs of Organization:
YWLP needs students to volunteer with their Slam Dunk for School Safety basketball tournament/fundraiser on February 18th. The goal of the tournament is to raise $2,000 so that the LOL project and field trip are free for all the students. This event will include a basketball tournament, raffle of donated items, a concession stand, bake sale and entertainment.
3.The Proposal:
According to the website Stomp out Bullying; 1 out of 4 teens are bullied and 1 out of 5 teens admit to being a bully or bullying someone, also as many as 160,000 students stay home on any given day because they're afraid of being bullied (http://stompoutbullying.com). These are troubling statistics, especially now with the addition of cyber-bullying on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. During a mentoring session in September 2011, YWLP Little Sisters shared some of their experiences involving “physical fights, graffiti, cruel language and bullying on social networking sites”.
To help with this, YWLP has partnered with the national AAUW and their community to create the “leading Out Loud (LOL)” Campaign; which will help students to empower themselves and others to stop bullying among their peers. The YWLP Little Sisters are taught to become peer advocates at their local middle schools and will lead an anti-bullying day at their middle school in March. The project ends with a field trip to UCF, where the Little Sisters will host workshops for local fifth grade boys and girls.
To help raise money for the “LOL” project, YWLP will host the Slam Dunk for School Safety basketball tournament on February 18th, 2012. The plan is to raise an additional $2,000 so that the “LOL “project and field trip are free for all the students.
Plan Proposal:
Throughout the semester we will be helping YWLP work on their national American Association of University Women's (AAUW) grant on girls' leadership to stop bullying. We will be working on is the Slam Dunk for School Safety Basketball Tournament, which takes place Saturday, February 18th, aside from the basketball tournament this event will have a raffle, concession stand, bake sale and, entertainment. For this event I (Nikki) will be trying to find donations for the raffle from local businesses, trying to coordinate teams to participate in the event and I will be a representative for the AAUW table to provide audiences with information about why and how this national organization is helping YWLP with their campaign.
We have already met with Meredith Tweed and Emily Vrotsos about the needs for this fundraising project and have discussed my responsibilities for this event. We have been given donation letters and forms to go around to local businesses to see if they would like to donate items to the raffle or concession stand or participate in the event as a team. We are also promoting to registered student organizations within the UCF community.
Rationale:
"Leadership is `a sequence of multidirectional, reciprocal influence processes among many individuals at different levels, in different subunits, and within executive teams`”(Winkler 6). Working in teams based on our strengths fits within this definition of leadership. By seeking to end bullying through assisting with awareness events and projects we are executing Women and Leadership through a transformational level and exercising the mission and prinicples of YWLP by progressing women's leadership potential within the UCF and Orlando Community. "Bullying knows no boundaries," but when it comes to potential, neither do great leaders when they come together for basic human justice. No one should feel uncomfortable in their daily lives, irrespective to our differences (StompOutBullying.com)
Initial Steps:
So far as a a group we have split up tasks equally and checked in with each other on donations so that we all being held accountable and aware of what is being contributed to the basketball tournament.
Joani has worked on getting players, drink donations and using her personal experience for rules and entertainment for the event.
Kelly has been working on recruitment among the UCF and Orlando Community and also advertisement
Valerie and I have been working on gathering donations through the surrounding communities for the concessions, raffle prizes and food and drinks. Additionally we are working on accumulating teams through word of mouth in our daily environments.
Timeline:
February: weeks of the 6th-18th, go around to local businesses and see if they would like to donate items, keep in touch with them through email and calling.
February 17th-help set up with food and any other miscellaneous items needed for the tournament.
February 18th: Slam Dunk for School Safety Basketball tournament, promote AAUW and the YWLP research project
April 19th, 2012 -We will deliver the completed project
Word Count: 1,048
Works Cited:
Love Our Children USA. Stomp Out Bullying. 2011. 14 2 2012 <http://stompoutbullying.com/aboutbullying_theissue.php>.
Winkler, Ingo. " Characteristics of Contemporary Theoretical Approaches in Leadership Research." Springer (2010): 6. Print.
UCF CAH: Young Women Leaders Program: Schools." UCF: CAH: Women's Studies Program: Mentoring Programs for Faculty. UCF Women's Studies Program. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://womensstudies.cah.ucf.edu/ywlp/schools.php>.
