Our daughter (8 years old) has thrived in the Shine program this year and is very excited to be participating again next year. She has grown in confidence and has handled a difficult bullying situation, which is now a thing of the past. She was so distraught when she told us earlier in the year that she was being bullied. This included being physically pushed around, told she smells, her lunch smells and general personal taunts. The two girls involved also broke things that she had made regularly. We chose not to intervene as our daughter panicked because she didn’t want to be seen as a ‘dibbydobber’ so I sat down with her and asked her what she could do to help herself. She decided to take her ‘problem’ to her Shine group. Where 22 beautiful girls gave her understanding, empathy, support and more importantly (with Melissa’s guidance) strategies to take home. I picked up a very different girl that night, She looked empowered and happy. Something we hadn’t seen for a while. Two weeks later I asked her how things were going and she said, oh *Sarah (not real name) and I are friends now, everything is ok. She then said ‘What you have to understand mummy is *Sarah is not a bad person, it was just her behaviour that was bad’. The girl who was the main instigator of the bullying then asked if she could have my daughter for a play date. Sure I said, come to our place!
Our daughter’s teacher has also informed us that she has removed herself from a particularly toxic group friendship and is now choosing to play with other girls. I am delighted that she is beginning to make good choices around friendships and that she has been able to distinguish between people and their behaviours, this has been due to the skills she has learnt at Shine, thank you. We reinforce these at home, which has been useful when managing the dynamic between her and her younger sister. By identifying the bullying behaviours that she experienced and identified during the program we are able to get her to think about how she is treating others.
A fabulous program that is showing tangible benefits for those we love the most.
Thank you for bringing this much-needed program to us.