Campaigns, competitions and conference planning can mean only one thing; Anti-bullying Week is almost upon us again! We have a full programme of events for this year and you can read more about individual activities below.

While our Anti-Bullying Week planning is underway, we continue to work in partnership with organisations across Scotland to develop and review anti-bullying policies and practices. Further details of our ongoing activities can be found on the website, and you can also follow our progress on Twitter and via Facebook.

Conference
Places are still available at this year’s conference, which is being delivered by respectme in partnership with LGBT Youth Scotland and Who Cares? Scotland at the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow on Tuesday 15 November. An online booking form together with full details of the day’s programme, workshops and inputs from children and young people can be found on the respectme website.

National competition
The deadline for entries to this year’s competition is looming! Entries in all three categories (Artistic, Creative Writing, Performance) should reach us no later than Friday 7 October. Please ensure that an entry form is attached to each individual entry. Further competition details are available on the respectme website and winners will be celebrated at an event in the Piping Centre, Glasgow on Friday 18 November.

Youth Group Project
Working in partnership with Youth Scotland, we have identified seven youth groups who will receive respectme funding to promote anti-bullying in their local area during Anti-Bullying Week. The following groups have been chosen and will receive up to £1000 each: Caol Duke of Edinburgh’s Group, Fort William; Young Leither’s, Edinburgh; Aberdeenshire Youth Council; Trinity and Victoria After School Clubs, Edinburgh; Y-Create, Glenrothes; West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre, Edinburgh; and the Depot Arts Co, Glasgow. The activities undertaken by each group will be showcased and promoted during Anti-Bullying Week, and full details of the individual projects will be available on the website.

Campaign
This year’s campaign will revisit cyberbullying with the theme ‘the internet is a place, not a thing’. Its core message will inform and educate adults about the internet being a social place that children and young people go to, and will reinforce the responsibility adults have to take an active interest and make sure that online environments are as safe as the places they visit in the ‘real’ world. The campaign is going to be heavily promoted through outdoor advertising and media partnerships. We are also going to develop a short film/advert which will be circulated online and which will be supported by a poster campaign that will be sent to schools, registered services, sports centres, libraries and health centres across Scotland. The campaign will be launched on Monday 14 November to mark the start of Anti-bullying Week.

The views and experiences of children and young people are vital to ensuring that the work we do is robust and realistic. We are currently looking for children and young people's views and experiences of cyberbullying to help us develop new resources and campaign materials.

In order to get as much meaningful feedback as possible, we're looking for your help in circulating our survey to the children and young people you come into contact with. It should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete, and will give us a real insight into young people's views on this very current issue.

The survey can be found at the following address, and we'd be delighted if you can encourage as many young people as possible to participate.

The findings of our two-year external evaluation were celebrated at an event at SAMH’s Information and Resource centre in Glasgow at the end of August. The evaluation concluded that our approach is making a difference to the lives of children and young people and contributing to societal change in Scotland. Copies of the full evaluation and the summary report can be found on the respectme website.