Be Strong, a student led organization empowering youth to “Be the Change” they would like to see in the world, has announced a strategic partnership with Safe Fleet. This partnership unites two organizations with a mutual purpose to transform and save lives, and to work together to create and promote communities of strength, hope, and resilience.
“We are dedicated to changing and saving lives with the most authentic partners who have passion and expertise for sustainable change,” said Ashleigh Cromer, executive ddirector of Be Strong. “We believe we’ve found that with Safe Fleet, a leader in safety solutions.”
“Keeping children and adults safe is in the forefront of everything we do,” said John R. Knox, president and CEO of Safe Fleet. “We have entered this partnership with Be Strong to reach more students and begin to reverse the disturbing statistics of how many youth are affected by bullying today.”
Safe Fleet’s United Against Bullying (UAB) program was established in 2012 by Seon, a Safe Fleet brand based in Vancouver, in response to a local cyber-bullying tragedy and was expanded in 2015 to become the national social campaign it is today. The UAB program was built on the belief that ‘every small action contributes to a big change in our society.’
As part of Be Strong’s efforts to end bullying, the team created and maintains the Be Strong app, available for free on iOS or Android, providing a wide range of support for students and families. The app offers digital tools to connect people of all ages to one-touch resources such as suicide lifeline, crisis text line, and trusted friends alert. It includes an information portal where any user can put in their zip code and be immediately connected to all of their local nonprofit resources.
According to the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System published by the US Department of Health and Human Services, 20.2% percent of grade 9-12 students in the US were bullied on school property and 8.6% had attempted suicide one or more times in the past twelve months. Those negatively impacted by bullying are two to nine times more likely to consider suicide than those who are not, according to studies by Yale University. Nationally, 29.9 percent of all high school students felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row.
"Bullying thrives when people don't take action to address this serious social issue," added Cromer, “We can no longer have segmented discussions on this. Rather we must heighten the visibility and impact to ensure that children, parents, grandparents, caregivers, guardians, governments, corporations, and non-profits are all participating in the discussion on this crucial safety, health, and social issue.”
