College of Public Health

New HEAR web toolkit to reduce bullying

Recently, KCRG Channel 9 and KGAN Channel 2 News covered UI IPRC’s HEAR web toolkit:  Helping Educators Use Art to Reduce Bullying.

Video Links:

http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Researchers-Create-Web-Toolkit-to-Combat-Bullying-368567161.html

http://cbs2iowa.com/news/voices-of-diversity/researchers-start-web-toolkit-aimed-at-bullying-prevention

The UI IPRC and The Working Group Theater (WGT) collaborated to create the HEAR web toolkit of arts-based activities to help prevent bullying (www.hear-project.org).   The web toolkit was developed for teachers, after school programs, or youth group leaders to have ready-to-go activities that address bullying and bullying prevention.  

Activities are for a wide range of ages and include drama, art and expression, games, reflective writing, and social media activities. The activities were pilot tested through a service learning course at the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Cedar Rapids School District’s middle schools.

The toolkit was developed to accompany a cyberbullying play called “Out of Bounds,” developed by the WGT with some community engagement collaboration from UI IPRC.  As the play was performed in more and more schools (including a recent national tour), the team wanted activities that would help schools bring more focus to the topic. HEAR was developed as an independent resource from the play, but which also partners well with the play.