Anti-bullying workshop incorporates arts based learning

TORONTO – Approximately two dozen eight- and nine-year-old children in Toronto’s west end, have been learning to think about creative ways to stop bulling.

“Thinking Forward is a charitable organization and we are all about building character and building communities here in Toronto,” Co-founder of Thinking Forward, Wilson Leung said. “Children and youth these days go through many different issues. Anti-bullying is a big one, self esteem issues, figuring out what life success means,” he said.

“So we thought that building character into the lives of children really is the foundation for their future,” Leung said.

The anti-bullying workshop runs for five weeks and focuses on three components of leadership training.

“We move on to outward leadership where the students focus on collaboration working with their peers and developing compassion,”  Program Facilitator of Thinking Forward, Aileen Lam  said.”The last piece is on forward leadership where we bring everything together and we help them figure out what they can do to make a positive change in their communities.”

After working with these children for such a short amount of time, Leung says can already see a change in their behavior.

“They’re much more positive about themselves and also using their strengths to help those around them,” he said.”By having them work with you, they’re developing the leadership skills and the empathy skills so they can move forward.”