Young ABA: 2023

Meeting 1: Tuesday 28th February 2023

We're so excited not only to meet our second Young ABA (YABA) cohort, but also that we're finally able to host a YABA meeting in-person! 

For our first face-to-face meeting with YABA 2023, we spent time getting to know each other first, playing ice-breaker games and creating a group contract we were all happy with. Then it was time to get to work.

For our first session, we gave the group some anti-bullying training to help them become anti-bullying experts. They then told us what they thought the biggest challenges were when trying to tackle bullying of children and young people, and gave us their ideas and suggestions about how we might be able to overcome these. The young people came up with some really insightful and thought-provoking suggestions, and we will be using them to inform the work we do this year. 

Finally, members of YABA 2023 gave some fantastic input into the planning for this year's Anti-Bullying Week theme! 

We had a fantastic first meeting and we're very much looking forward to our next meeting with this brilliant group of young minds! 

Meeting 2: Tuesday 25th April 2023

For our second meeting with Young ABA 2023, we met online via Zoom.

We started with a session around how to encourage people who are bullying others to stop, and how schools might support these children and young people to stop their behaviour. We looked at some fictional case studies and used them to have discussions around this topic and come up with our own ideas. You can see a snapshot of just some of that discussion through our jamboard:  

We then moved on to talk about Anti-Bullying Week 2023. We got feedback from our group about the theme of this year's Anti-Bullying Week and asked for their thoughts on the design and logo. 

One of the things that we create each year along side the theme is the 'call to action', which is a short paragraph explaining what the theme is all about, and puts across the message in a clear and concise way. Our Young ABA group worked together to come up with some great ideas and phrases to use within the call to action for this year's Anti-Bullying Week where the theme is 'Make a Noise About Bullying'. 

We're looking forward to our next meeting with the group in June when we'll be getting together in person again. 

Meeting 3: Tuesday 27th June 2023

We were so pleased to be getting together again as a group in person for our third Young ABA meeting! This time we met at the ABA offices in Hackney. 

We had lots that we wanted to achieve in this meeting, so we split into small groups who took it in turns to have a go at completing each activity. The things we did together were:

• Planned and then recorded an interview/discussion the difference between bullying, banter and arguments. 
• Filmed footage for our Anti-Bullying Week 2023 secondary school film.
• Tested out and gave feedback to ABA about a new resource around working with children who bully others.

We also had fun continuing to get to know each other. We were thrilled to have some amazing feedback from our members about the day, including:

"Amazing and happy to meet up with the others again"

"I've felt relieved and satisfied because my friend and me saw the same people again and having fun and releasing our opinions"

"I felt like I made a change"

Our next Young ABA meeting will be in September which will take place online. Watch this space to find out what we get up to! 

Meeting 4: Tuesday 12th September 2023

For our fourth meeting with Young ABA 2023, we met online again via Zoom.

At this meeting we premiered the Secondary School Anti-Bullying Week video that they had created!

This meeting also included media training from an expert within the National Children's Bureau, giving top tips for if any of YABA give interviews. 

We finished the meeting thinking about Anti-Bullying Week 2023 in order to get everyone's input.

Meeting 5: Tuesday 17th October 2023

We were delighted to be getting together again as a group in person at Anomalous Space, London.

Like our third meeting, we split into small groups who took it in turns to have a go at completing each activity. The things we did together were:

• Planned and filmed interviews answering: what being a part of YABA has meant to them & why is training for school staff to reduce bullying so important?
• Creating TikTok content
• Social media training

Feedback from the day included: "Thanks for returning my smile"!

Anti-Bullying Week 2023

The Young ABA helped us to plan the week! They also produced content for the week, including our Anti-Bullying Week 2023: Make A Noise - Official Secondary School film:

Some of the cohort also joined us at the House of Lords to speak to parliamentarians and leaders of the Anti-Bullying sector to celebrate the week, and to specifically talk about why it is so important that teachers and other school staff and those working with children are given anti-bullying training.