VICTORIA, Sept. 6, 2019 /CNW/ - The founder of internationally recognized Pink Shirt Day or Pink Day, has joined Canada's most prolific bullying-prevention program.
Travis Price, co-founder of Pink Day (known in some jurisdictions as Pink Shirt Day) will work closely with the WITS Programs Foundation to bring both their messages to Canadian children in the coming 2019-2020 school year. It is a natural fit.
The original Pink Shirt Day was organized by David Shepherd and Travis Price of Berwick, Nova Scotia, who in 2007 bought and distributed 50 pink shirts after a male ninth grade student was bullied for wearing a pink shirt during the first day of school. The last Wednesday each February is now the national anti-bullying day in Canada. Over the past 12 years, Price has spoken at hundreds of Canadian schools and worked with over 100 countries to spread the Pink Day movement to stop bullying and embrace kindness.
The WITS strategies (Walk Away, Ignore, Talk it out, Seek help) for young children were brought forward in 1998 as a bullying-prevention program after the tragic death of Reena Virk in Victoria, BC. The University of Victoria assisted with evaluations and nation-wide dissemination under the leadership of psychology professor Bonnie Leadbeater, PhD. WITS is now used in over 1200 Canadian schools, has crossed the border into the USA, and last year a group of researchers in Brazil worked with Leadbeater to create the Portuguese version of WITS, known as DIGA.
According to UNICEF's 2017 report "Oh Canada! Our kids deserve better", Canada ranks 25th place out of 41 rich countries on the Index of Child and Youth Well-being and Sustainability, and Canada's middle ranking hasn't improved in years." Together, Travis Price and the WITS Programs Foundation will build on their collective successes to reduce bullying and create a better Canadian society.
The WITS Programs Foundation is a registered Canadian charity based in Victoria, BC.
SOURCE WITS Programs Foundation
Andy Telfer, Executive Director, WITS, Office: 250-386-7625, mobile: 250-954-7123
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