The Port Coquitlam-based I Am Someone Ending Bullying Society has entered a new chapter in its efforts to battle bullying with a new texting platform for young people who need support and a teen spokesperson who has personal experience with cyberbullying.
Sienna Leone, who was recently crowned Miss Teenage BC 2015 and is heading to Toronto to compete for the national crown, has agreed to be the spokesperson for I Am Someone to get teens to text 211 if they need help.
"This could save someone's life" — Sienna Leone, I Am Someone Ending Bullying Society spokesperson
The service, which began as a community response to the death of bullied PoCo teen Amanda Todd and the suicides of a number of other local youth, and was piloted with Telus funds this winter, has now expanded.
Teens as far away as the Fraser Valley, the Sunshine Coast and Hope, in addition to the Tri-Cities and the rest of Metro Vancouver, can now text 211 to get help from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week. Experts will provide teens with appropriate confidential support and, according to Leone, teens struggling with bullying, grief, thoughts of suicide and other issues will get the kind of help they need when they want it and how they want it — via anonymous text.
"It's comforting, it's a safe zone," said Leone, who said she had a bad experience with bullying in Grade 6 and would have benefited from a program like 211.
Recounting that experience, she said standing up for a friend who was bullied made her a social outcast and Leone said she had to go to the police because of death threats. Eventually, after being home schooled and then changing schools, the cyberbullying died down, but Leone said it took a long time for her to get over the experience.
Now, the Vancouver teen says she wants to raise awareness about the I Am Someone society and its 211 texting so more kids aren't hurt.
"This could save someone's life," she said.
Erin Moore, the society's new executive director, also said she thinks the 211 texting program will make a difference for B.C. teens because more young people will have access to it through an agreement recently reached with the non-profit bc211. Prior to a memorandum of understanding, I Am Someone had another texting program called 2Talk but it ran out of funding, so the number was switched to 211, Moore said.
The goal has always been to get the texting support program operating and to provide as much access as possible, and bc211 provided the vehicle to make it happen.
"We saw the numbers go up," said Moore, who said that the main concerns of teens who texted during the pilot are mental health, loneliness, gangs, sexual exploitation, date violence, hate crimes, discrimination and abuse.
Still, funds are needed to keep the program going, and a fundraising campaign is in the works.
"We have to do what we can to support them" — Erin Moore, I Am Someone executive director
In the meantime, teens can text 211 to get help and Moore expects the program to grow as teens find out about it. "The average teen texts 3,400 times a month," Moore said. "They text — they don't pick up the phone. We have to do what we can to support them."
Moore, who is also the wife of I Am Someone co-founder and Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, was hired by the society for the part-time post, and the mayor said in an email he was not part of the hiring process.
