Event offers parents support with bullying

The Ottawa Bullying Prevention Coalition presented its first-ever event for parents to help their children with bullying. The ** Bullying - What Can Parents Do? Let’s Talk About It… ** event this evening brought together key partners including mental-health experts, researchers, and school board and police representatives to support parents, with the goal of building a more supportive and safe community for all those impacted by bullying.

The event, hosted by Ottawa Public Health (OPH), included community service information booths, a panel presentation from local experts and the opportunity for parents to ask questions about preventing and responding to bullying more effectively.

“This event is important in helping to build and sustain healthy communities where children, youth and parents feel supported and know where to go for help. We applaud the Ottawa Bullying Prevention Coalition for bringing parents and community partners together to have this conversation,” said Dr. Isra Levy, Medical Officer of Health.

The goal of the event was to help parents report and respond to bullying incidents. It also provided parents with information, resources and services available in Ottawa. The event highlighted that bullying is not solely a school issue, but rather a community issue that requires city-wide strategies to support all those impacted by bullying.

“Events like this are important to bring community partners and parents together so everyone can feel better equipped to help support kids around the issue of bullying. Our role at the Ottawa Police Service is to help make sure that every child in our city feels safe,” said Chief Charles Bordeleau, Ottawa Police Service.

“Bullying is such a serious and complex issue, and we as parents, educators, mental health experts and as a community need to move beyond awareness and focus on what can be done to address this issue effectively,” said Angela Lorusso, Lead of the Ottawa Bullying Prevention Coalition and community developer at the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre.

The Ottawa Bullying Prevention Coalition is led by the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre and comprises partners including Ottawa Public Health, Ottawa Police Service, all four Ottawa school boards and CHEO.

For more information about bullying, please visit OttawaPublicHealth.ca . You can also follow OPH on Twitter , Facebook and Tumblr .