From Our CEO, Kelly O’Lague

“The people who are bullying you, they’re insecure about who they are, and that’s why they’re bullying you. It never has to do with the person they’re bullying. They desperately want to be loved and be accepted, and they go out of their way to make people feel unaccepted so that they’re not alone.”
-Madelaine Petsch

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Schools and youth organizations across the country step up their anti-bullying initiatives. Orange shirts with anti-bullying slogans appear. But I have to wonder…should we expand our efforts to include adults? In a recent workshop on the topic of bullying, I asked the participants, “Who here has been bullied?” Every single hand went up. Some reported having been bullied as children, some as teenagers and some in adulthood. A few people shared with the group that they felt bullied in current relationships or in their current work settings. What can we do to address bullying?

At Hively, we believe that an important way to address bullying is by increasing empathy and compassion. Can empathy be taught? Can compassion be learned. Absolutely. Would our world be better if empathy and compassion were practiced (and it does take practice) by those around us? Yes. We are offering a number of workshops in the next few months that will continue the conversation. We hope you will join us.

As always, we invite you to be part of our Hively community! We work every day to improve the lives of the children and families in our community. There is so much to do. Will you help us? For more information on how you can get involved, email us at hello@behively.org.