03 March 2009
CyberMentors is a year old today! To mark the anniversary, we thought we’d look back on the year and remember some of the highlights!
CyberMentors is launched by the Prime Minister, who describes it as “an exciting new initiative to help keep Britain’s children and young people safe online.” Tanya Byron, who soon becomes President of CyberMentors records her first message of support, as we are joined by over 250 young people and professionals, including teachers, internet safety experts, mobile phone companies, social networking sites and colleagues working across the youth sector. Five of the first CyberMentors ever trained become the first of many to give speeches at national events and they rock!
Two months in, and with support ranging from Joe Calzaghe and Aston from JLS to Nick Gibb MP, we begin to realise the impact CyberMentors is having. Over 68,000 young people have come to the site already and many are being mentored by some of the 400 CyberMentors trained so far.
"I just wanna say a huge thanks for helping me get through the bullying. Telling people about the bullying helped my confidence and i finally told a teacher and they sorted it out for me. I’m happier now and i know that if i need to speak to some one i know where to come. Thank You!! I owe you a lot! :) Thanks."
Having received almost 1,000 emails from young people wanting to become CyberMentors, we run our first training session at Google HQ in London. Young people, aged between 11 and 25, from as far away as Jersey, Manchester and Shropshire, descend on London for a memorable day’s training in a glamorous location. We now run 4 sessions a year with Google. Check it out!
Back in June, the CyberMentors at Horbury School won a national Peer Link Award. As well as the great online support they’ve delivered between them, they’ve embedded the concept deep into their school, set up a committee, elected a Chair and set about being as proactive as possible! They’ve organised parents' evenings, recruited new volunteers, raised money for CyberMentors, and even set up their own school website and CyberMentors Twitter account!
In October, CyberMentors then scoop the coveted Best Use of Digital Media award for CyberMentors at the prestigious Third Sector Awards. Facing stiff competition from such sector giants as BHF, NSPCC, Save The Children, Help for Heroes and Crisis, CyberMentors wins through for its innovative online service provision, groundbreaking digital volunteering and counselling model.
Over 100,000 “R U Cybersafe?” CyberMentors wristbands are worn during anti-bullying week, the theme of which was cyberbullying. Young CyberMentors meet Ed Balls MP and speak at more national conferences. We release a range of fantastic, free lesson plans, assembly packs, and resources for teachers at antibullyingweek.org, and then all our expectations are blown away when thousands of young people enter our CyberMentors competition to design new widgets for the site. (You can see some of the winners here.)
CyberMentors launches an uncompromising £1.2m advertising campaign depicting a teenage girl sewing her mouth closed to symbolise the way victims feel silenced by bullies. The advert, produced by award winning agency M&C Saatchi, goes live on YouTube’s homepage, where it’s been watched over 108,000 times. A poster campaign starts on billboards in cities and schools nationwide, whilst Pearl & Dean announce that the advert will be shown in their cinemas.
Initially, the advert is refused permission to air on TV by Clearcast, causing much debate and some fierce responses from a lot of people, encouraging us to appeal against the decision. The issue reaches the House of Commons, where the Rt Hon Anne Maguire MP tables an EDM calling on Clearcast to reconsider its decision to ban. Sure enough, in February the advert is unbanned and national newspapers begin to offer the print version free advertising space.
JD Sports show their support by putting up a range of CyberMentor posters in their outlets across the UK.
One year on, and CyberMentors continues to go from strength to strength. There are now over 2760 young volunteer CyberMentors working to support and assist some of their most vulnerable peers. Over 342,000 people have accessed the site for support and the website is clearly reaching out to some of our most marginalised young people; 5.42% of our users are young carers, 5.47% are looked after and 6.75% have a Statement of Special Needs. There have been over 262,000 mentoring interactions – thank you to all the CyberMentors who have helped – you are true heroes.
Thank you for all your support this year, and we look forward to celebrating the highlights of the coming years with you.