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The Bullying Revolution

The Bullying Revolution is a global social change movement focused on creating a world free of bullying. Cameron made no secret of his experience of being bullied for several years throughout his school years. It was one of the things that drove him to make the world a kinder, better place for children, and to create programs to help them thrive. Cameron had made Super Bullying Defence a part of his Safety Net self defence superhero programs at ParagonInc. He often talked about the unlikelihood of kids needing to defend themselves against a stranger attacking them in the street, compared with the much more realistic need for them to learn skills to protect themselves from being harmed by bullying (which affects more than one in four kids globally), and from the long term effects of bullying, including the mental health issues that arise from it. With this context, he referred to his Safety Net program as “real life self defence”.

Prevention, not redirection

Over the years, Cameron discovered that while his programs were quite effective at helping kids avoid bullying, it was misleading to refer to them as “bullying prevention programs”. He realised that while confidence, resilience, and strong social relating skills could reduce the likelihood of someone being bullied, and reduce the impacts of any bullying that occured, it didn’t really prevent bullying – it simply redirected the bullying behaviour elsewhere, towards kids with a little less resilience or social confidence. The expectation on kids to develop resilience, and to brush off bullying, and to “ignore them”, often the only advice teachers could give, also smelled strongly to Cameron of victim blaming. 

With the research of over fifty years showing no significant reduction in global bullying rates, and a pervasive question among experts about their capacity to make real change in this field, with many people believing bullying as a part of life that we can’t eradicate altogether, Cameron decided to take a stronger stand.

Revolution

Real prevention, not redirection, through greater social and cultural change. A revolution. 

Cameron founded the Bullying Revolution with his friend and colleague, psychologist and advocate, Teresa Butler. They took their approach to the National No to Bullying Conference, and then the year after, presented at the World Anti-Bullying Forum, in Stockholm. The following year, they published their first book together, Unbullying: Uniting for Revolutionary Change. In June 2019, 2 months after Cameron’s passing, Teresa headed to Dublin for the next world forum, presenting the workshop they had planned to present together.

The Bullying Revolution is a registered business of Cameron’s non profit social enterprise of his company, Impossible Co. The Bullying Revolution is the embodiment of Impossible Co, perfectly capturing Cameron’s wish to continue to create good in the world after his passing, with its focus on creating global change in the bullying prevention field through the creation of a cultural and social kindness revolution.  You can find out more about The Bullying Revolution here.

Want to learn more about Cameron Gill’s journey, his legacy, and his legacy projects? CLICK HERE for Cam’s official Facebook legacy page. We have heaps more of his story to share, so like and follow to stay updated.

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