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Bully Stoppers Grants Program

Round Three 2014

Applications for the Grants Program is NOW OPEN

What is the Bully Stoppers Grants Program?

On 12 April 2011, the Premier announced the Victorian Government’s Stamp Out Bullying campaign to ensure that action is taken to make schools safer and protect students from any form of bullying.

To support this campaign, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) presented all Victorian schools with the opportunity to obtain grants to implement strategies or programs that endeavoured to prevent and respond to bullying (both face-to-face and online) in their school community. The grants were released over two rounds in 2013.

Following the success of the 2013 grants, a third round is available and open for application.

Round 3 of the grants will support projects that focus on:

  • Upskilling bystanders through increasing students’ skills and ability to take action and respond if they are being bullied or witnessing bullying happening to others

and/or

  • Cyberbullying

Each project or initiative should provide a range of learning and teaching opportunities that develop students’ skills and knowledge. The Bully Stoppers Grants Program can assist schools to implement projects or initiatives that demonstrate a commitment to developing and implementing ongoing, school-led bullying and cyberbullying prevention initiatives.

Collaboration, shared leadership, support for those who implement the projects or initiatives and meaningful involvement of the school and wider community are essential elements to provide for safe and inclusive school environments. Schools may wish to partner with a community organisation either as an individual school or with a cluster of schools. Community organisations may include (but are not limited to) sporting clubs, local government, cultural organisations (e.g. ACMI, Arts Centre) and other not-for-profit agencies.

Who can apply?

All Victorian primary and secondary schools can apply - Government, Catholic and Independent.

Schools can apply individually or as part of a cluster of schools. Not-for-profit community organisations interested in accessing the grants program will need to partner with a school which can apply on behalf of the organisation.

What do I need to do before I apply?

There are some important steps to consider prior to submitting your application to the Grants Program.

Step 1: Check that the school’s principal is supportive of the Grants Program and will willingly sign-off your completed application form.

Step 2: Discuss your program/initiative idea with your leadership team and gain support from other staff that will be required to support your program/initiative if it is awarded funding.

Step 3: Approach your preferred community organisation to discuss your program/initiative idea and gain their support (if applicable).

Step 4: Review the following key selection criteria and prepare your response.

You will be required to address how your project will:

  1. Demonstrate a commitment to developing and implementing ongoing, school-led bullying and cyberbullying prevention initiatives.
  2. Improve awareness among teachers, students and parents that bullying and cyberbullying is unacceptable and will not be tolerated
  3. Develop students’ understanding of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour both online and offline
  4. Build on current school-based approaches in an innovative and creative manner.

Please note: your response to each criteria should not exceed 500 words. Applications that do not meet length requirements will not be considered.

Step 5:Complete the application form, including your response to the key selection criteria.

The application form is available for downloading at:

Please note:Preference will be given to those schools that have commenced their eSmart journey (this only applies to schools eligible for eSmart). You can register your school at:

How much funding is available?

Grants of up to $10,000 are available.

What types of projects might be funded?

To see examples of projects that received grants in 2013 please visit: Bully Stoppers Grants Program Examples.

What will not be funded?

  • Programs or initiatives that have already been implemented within the school and do not require further funding to be re-implemented.
  • Programs or initiatives that include cash prizes or commercial gifts.
  • Routine activities.
  • Schools that have failed to complete the requirements of previously provided grants funded by DEECD, such as Bully Stoppers Grants Rounds 1 and 2, the Innovating with Technology Trials.
  • Initiatives seeking retrospective funding of projects.
  • Incomplete applications.

Where do I apply?

To apply, you will need to email your application form, including the response to the key selection criteria to: .

Please note: once you have submitted your application, an email confirming that your application has been received may take up to 24 hours to be sent.

How will the application be assessed?

A selection panel comprising DEECD representatives will assess applications according to the identified key selection criteria. It is the intention of the selection panel to support as many projects as possible, within the total allocated budget, while still enabling delivery of quality projects. The panel reserves the right to offer schools a pro-rata amount, if necessary, of the requested project budget.

When will I be notified if my school will be awarded a grant?

All applicants will be notified by email of the outcome of their grant application by email onFriday, 1 August 2014.

When do applications close?

Applications will close at 5pm on Friday,18 July 2014.

If I am successful, what are my school’s obligations?

Successful schools will be required to:

  1. Attend a one-hour online briefing session in the Department’s Virtual Conference Centre on 4 August 2014.
  2. Deliver strategies and activities that promote student, parent and community skills and knowledge development by implementing their proposed project by the dates indicated in the application.
  3. Submit a brief case study (template will be provided) that supports the project/initiative, by the date indicated in application.

(Please note: This documentation will undergo a quality assurance process. If your submission does not meet the requirements set out you will be expected to revise it and resubmit).

  1. Agree to the project being shared via the Department’s website, FUSE, local press and other media opportunities.

Additional information

The following website linksmay be useful when you are planning your program or initiative:

Bully Stoppers is an online toolkit that aims to strengthen bullying prevention and eventually reduce bullying incidents in all Victorian schools

Curriculum Planning A range of resources available to help you with curriculum planning and delivery, including planning guidelines and modules.

Department’s Virtual Conference Centre The Virtual Conference Centre offers free web conference sessions for meeting, learning and collaborating online. This facility is available for use by Victorian educators in government, catholic and independent schools, and Departmental staff in regional and central offices.

Bullying. No Way!is a nationwide resource of State and Territory approaches to minimising bullying, harassment and violence in schools.

Cybersmart.gov.auCybersmart is a national cybersafety and cybersecurity education program managed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which aims to:

  • Inform children, young people, parents, teachers and library staff about cybersafety issues
  • Educate audiences through information, resources and practical advice
  • Empower children and young people to be safe online.

eSmart - eSmart, developed by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation in collaboration with the RMIT School of Education, is an easy-to-use, evidence-based system that assists school communities to manage and deal with cyberbullying. eSmart is available to all Victorian government schools at no charge, and 300 selected Catholic and Independent schools.

FUSE - is a portal, a repository, a search engine, a workspace and a way of sharing quality education digital content and resources. FUSE has unique environments for teachers, primary and secondary students. Users can search for websites, images, video, audio, interactives, documents and other rich media types with all resources tagged according to audience.

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