BALTIMORE — Last week was Youth Violence Prevention Week (March 23-27). The Weinberg Family Center Y located 900 E. 33rd Street in Baltimore, hosted a community event to discuss how the issues of violence and bullying impact young people.
To help facilitate the conversation about the very a serious concern in our community, Cinnamon Brown-Mack and her organization, Victorious Attitudes For Everyday Life Inc. (VAEL) led the discussion. VAEL is an educational 501-C3 non-profit organization, serving the Maryland community with a mission is to educate, empower and enrich the lives of children, youth and adults through high quality educational programs, workshops and resources.
“The goal of this meeting is to inform the community as to being able to spot potential issues and signs of bullying in your home regardless of it’s your child doing the bullying or being bullied, steps to prevent bullying and more importantly to open the dialogue about this issue. We have to continue to talk and educate about this problem because it is not going away,” said Brown-Mack.
The workshop was very well attended and included parents, community members, teachers and police officers. Interactive participation was included in the workshop. Four adults were chosen from the audience to demonstrate how bullying starts and the cause and effect of bullying. One scenario demonstrated how a person who has been bullied, often becomes the bully. The program also showed how social media is by far one of the main culprits of bullying.
“It is really up to the parents, regardless of their socioeconomic situation to make sure they know what their child is doing on these social media outlets as well as what they are allowing them to view on television, and who they are associating with. Again, we as adults and parents must be more aware about what’s happening in our kids lives not only at home but in school and in the community,” said Brown-Mack.
For more information about Victorious Attitudes For Everyday Life Inc. and the services the organization it provides, visit: www.victoriousattitudes.org or call: 443-803-6730.