BULLYING heads a list of worries for our young people and the Albury Youth Council is stepping up to tackle the problem.
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Youth councillor Alexiean Terblanche, 18, said an anti-bullying awareness day, first held last year, would now become an annual event.
About 300 people attended the October event, releasing balloons in memory of those who had taken their own lives because of bullying and taking part in a walk to QEII Square.
Service providers were also on hand to offer assistance and information.
“If kids are getting bullied, feeling depressed or anxious, they know there are other options out there for them,” Alexiean said.
“We haven’t set a date yet but we’re hoping it will be bigger and better than last year.
“It will also show people bullying isn’t the end of the world, you can get through it, but also show people who bully just what they are doing.”
Alexiean said the anti-bullying day was launched in response to a youth council survey of years 9, 10 and 11 students in Albury.
“After that survey we thought we can’t have that information sitting with us and not do anything about it,” she said.
“We shouldn’t be just a youth council that puts on fun things, we needed to do serious stuff too.
“Our youth council is very multicultural. Many know what it’s like to be bullied, to be the one left out and to go through a life-changing event.”
More than 3200 students took part in the survey.
Nearly 200 year 11 students said bullying and cyber-bullying were the main issues affecting young people, while 132 year 10 and 161 year 9 students agreed.
“It was a general survey about what young people thought Albury needed, what the issues were,” Alexiean said.
“The main thing we got out of it was that bullying, cyber-bullying and suicide were some of the major problems — there were more responses about that than drug and alcohol problems.”
Alexiean said the council expected the results to reflect bashings, people feeling unsafe, drugs and alcohol, suicide and depression as the main concerns.
“We did get a lot of that but in relation to bullying,” she said.
“That could be because people are afraid of people at school or bullying in their workplace or even being bullied in bad family situations.
“Depression, suicide and anti-social behaviour then stems from that.”
Service providers interested in being part of the day can contact Mandy Wilson at Albury City Council on (02) 6023 8295.