Young Anti-Bullying Alliance: the story so far

Thursday 1 October 2009

Name: Young Anti-Bullying Alliance

Age: Two Years

Location: Across England

Early days
Young ABA, a network of over 11,000 young people who have gained the Diana Anti-Bullying Award, was formed by the ABA and the Diana Awards in 2007.

Our role is to empower and engage young people all over the country to deal with the issue of bullying. In 2007, we were invited to 10 Downing Street to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Children's Secretary Ed Balls, and we held an event at London Zoo.

Now and coming soon

Two years on and we're busier than ever. Following the 2009 theme, Young ABA has just sent out our cyberbullying research questionnaire to the 600 Diana Anti-Bullying Award schools and to other award-holders.

The Children and Young People's Research Centre at the Open University trained us to undertake this work, which is thought to be the first youth-led research into cyberbullying and how young people think it should be tackled.

We are also developing a scheme that will see the election of an ambassador in schools with Diana Anti-Bullying Awards to act as a lead on anti-bullying work for the rest of the academic year. The ambassadors are encouraged to organise Anti-Bullying Week in their school, with the help of Young ABA Board members.

On top of that, we have our Anti-Bullying Week 2009 activities to finish planning, and events such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history month and the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to attend. Young ABA is also working on anti-bullying training for schools and updating our section on the new ABA website, so other young people can find out about the work we do. Busy and exciting times ahead.

Charlotte Pridham, Young ABA chair

More from NCB: Visit the anti-bullying alliance website