The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) has partnered with the Anti-bullying Technical Working Group to host a series of workshops focusing on bullying in schools and cyberbullying.

The workshops, titled ‘One Kind Word and Action’, form part of a training initiative.

The first, a semi-virtual cyberbullying forum, is scheduled for the Medallion Hall Hotel in Kingston on Thursday, October 13, beginning at 9:00 a.m. It will be held under the theme ‘Make Kindness Go Viral’.

Gleasia Reid Smith, research and development manager at the CPFSA, told the Jamaica Information Service, that the workshops initially targeted student teachers.

She indicated that the forums were intended to equip them with certain soft skills to enable them to assist children in dealing with bullying in school, and cyberbullying.

Reid Smith pointed out, however, that the CPFSA deemed it prudent to extend the outreach to all professionals dealing with children and the focus issues and how these impact the youngsters who are affected.

The target stakeholders now include senior teachers, such as deans of discipline and guidance counsellors; social workers; and children’s officers, as well as parents, and the youngsters.

This expanded engagement is intended to help them build resilience in dealing with the target issues.

Smith Reid said the focus of Thursday’s cyberbullying workshop will be how the matter is treated in the current legislation, and the extent to which teachers will be aided in navigate the relevant issues.

Case studies will be reviewed during the session to identify antecedents, as also victims’ experience, and the extent to which the law can be used as a resource to enable participants to understand cyberbullying.

Among the slated participants are members of the CPFSA Child Advisory Panel and other agency executives; representatives of Bureau of Gender Affairs, Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Jamaica Prefect Association, Get Safe International and Bully Proof Kids International, and academia; a children’s panel, and cyber experts.

Other workshops are scheduled for December 12, 2022, and March 16 and 17, 2023.