Connecting Effective Bullying Prevention with Caring Changemakers

NEWS RELEASE

LEIGH STEINBERG, ANTI-BULLYING EXPERTS H.E.A.R. AND COMMITTEE FOR CHILDREN

LAUNCH NATIONAL COALITION TO COMBAT BULLYING IN SCHOOLS

Project HEAR Us Foundation to “go beyond awareness” by enlisting high school athletes, artists and other student leaders as instructors of research-based anti-bullying solutions

Los Angeles – November 2, 2016 – Leigh Steinberg and leading anti-bullying advocates Committee for

Children and H.E.A.R. are joining with bullying prevention expert Dr. Susan Swearer to form Project HEAR Us

Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to raising the awareness, engagement and funding required to bring proven,

classroom-based anti-bullying programs into schools with pressing financial needs.

“Bullying – including cyberbullying – continues to be a serious problem in our nation’s schools,” noted

Steinberg, founder and CEO of Steinberg Sports and Entertainment, “and we need to do more than simply focus

attention on this problem. We need to transform growing awareness of the damaging effects of bullying into the

financing required to bring proven strategies and practical tools into schools most in need. Professional athletes

and coaches, community-minded teams and their corporate sponsors can play a key role in that effort.”

In recent years, educators, parents and lawmakers across the country have taken steps to draw attention

to the negative impact of bullying – including awareness initiatives such as October’s Bullying Prevention Month –

and all 50 states have instituted anti-bullying legislation. Few of these initiatives and government directives,

however, provide the funding many schools need to meaningfully address the problem. Project HEAR Us

Foundation is focused on soliciting private enterprise to play a bigger role in funding school-based instruction.

“Awareness has been key to building support for bullying prevention, but we need to do more,” agreed Dr.

Swearer, Chair of the Research Advisory Board for Born This Way Foundation and Willa Cather Professor of

Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. “Effective, research-based solutions are out there.

The time has come to marshal the funding required to bring these programs into schools most in need.”

The partners of Project HEAR Us have created research-based solutions that meet the needs of

elementary, middle and high school students in combating bullying in their schools – including cyber bullying.

Jimmy Shafe, founder and President of H.E.A.R. program developer Career Training Concepts, Inc.,

emphasized the need for corporations and local businesses to lead the effort to bring effective bullying prevention

programming into financially strapped schools. “Programs like HEAR – Helping Everyone Achieve Respect work to

curb bad behavior before it starts by teaching all students about the importance of kindness and the detrimental

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effects of bullying,” said Shafe. “We are calling upon the private sector to step up and support our children by

funding the teaching of respectful behavior at all levels of primary education.”

Dr. Tia Kim, Director of Programs, Partnerships and Research at Committee for Children, the world’s

largest provider of research-based curriculum that promote social-emotional skills and prevent bullying, noted

that social-emotional skills are foundational to bullying prevention. “Our research-based bullying prevention

program draws on bullying-related research from across the different stages of childhood. Teaching social and

emotional learning skills has been found to be important in the healthy development of children and these skills

are key components in tackling the bullying problem,” said Kim. “We’ve worked hard to translate the research on

bullying prevention into our Second Step Bullying Prevention Unit, and look forward to helping provide all schools

with the tools they need to combat bullying.”

The partners of Project HEAR Us have created research-based solutions that meet the specific needs of

elementary, middle school and high school students in combating bullying in their schools – including cyber

bullying. For more information about the specific bullying prevention solutions supported by Project HEAR Us

Foundation, visit HEAR – Helping Everyone Achieve Respect and Committee for Children.

The Project HEAR Us Foundation website includes information and resources designed to help everyone

contribute to the bullying prevention cause. If you’re an athlete, entertainer, community advocate, parent or

student – you can make a difference by joining this nationwide effort. And if you represent a corporation, local

business or charitable foundation – you can help by providing much-needed funding for classroom-based bullying

prevention instruction and student engagement initiatives. More information on how you can get involved can be

found at www.projecthearus.org, or like us on Facebook.

About Project HEAR US Foundation

Project HEAR Us is a national non-profit coalition of leading anti-bullying experts, sports professionals and private enterprises whose mission is to provide proven, research-based tools for combatting bullying in all schools and communities, regardless of prevailing financial limitations and other resource constraints. Partners of Project HEAR Us include the University of Nebraska—Lincoln Department of Educational Psychology, Making Caring Common – A Project of Harvard Graduate School of Education, HEAR – Helping Everyone Achieve Respect, Committee for Children, Steinberg Sports and Entertainment and The Giving Back Fund.

Project HEAR Us Foundation is a project of The Giving Back Fund, Inc. (Federal Tax ID 04-3367888), a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation with federal tax-exempt status as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3). The Giving Back Fund is a national public charity that creates and professionally manages charitable foundations and other philanthropic programs for athletes, entertainers, business entrepreneurs, and corporations.

Contact: Michael Ares Executive Director Project HEAR Us Foundation 678-294-3651 michael.ares@projecthearus.org