HISTORICAL SUMMARY

On a national scale, the U.S. departments of Education and Health and Human Services have joined forces with four other departments to create a task force on bullying.  “In August 2010, the task force staged the first-ever National Bullying Summit, bringing together 150 top state, local, civic, and corporate leaders to begin mapping out a national plan to end bullying.  The task force also launched a new website, www.bullyinginfo.org, which bring all the federal resources on bullying together in one place for the first time.” In March 2011, the President of the United States convened a White House Conference on the subject.

Meanwhile, in Mid-Michigan, the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition held retreats in 2005 and 2007 for people with disabilities and people who are TBGL (trangender, bi-sexual, gay, lesbian), and learned that it was time “for these two communities to come together to build bridges, close gaps, join forces, reach out and find common ground.”  Building on that finding, Disability Awareness and Oasis--two social justice ministries to these people in the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan-- have developed a co-operative effort.  In June 2009, their representatives met for the first time and agreed to focus on bullying.

Since that initial meeting the two committees have worked jointly to lay the foundations for an outreach ministry focusing on the bullying issues confronting our society.  Consequently, we offered two workshops on bullying at the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan’s 2010 Ministry Fair, where we also distributed educational material.  Delegates to the 2010 Diocesan Convention passed a resolution about bullying and its prevention.  Please see the contents of that resolution in another sub-section.

We also plan two workshops for the 2011 Ministry Fair, focusing on what members of a congregation can do to help address the pervasive and detrimental effects of bullying.

In March 2011, we named our joint committee "Alliance to Abolish Bullying".