Approximately one in every four students experience bullying and nearly all students will witness bullying during their years in school. Research shows that bullying can lead to depression, substance abuse, poor health, delinquency and poor academic performance.  

The City of Orlando has launched Stand Up Orlando, an anti-bullying campaign with a focus on safety and positive relationships among Orlando’s students, parents, administration and teachers.

Stand Up Orlando includes a financial partnership between the City of Orlando and the Holocaust Center to provide its UpStanders curriculum programming to 6th and 7th grade students in nine City of Orlando public schools (Blanker, Carver, Glenridge, Howard, Jackson, Lake Nona, Lee, Memorial and Odyssey). The UpStanders program is a five session long program that includes field trips, guest speakers and in-class programming that will be offered to 6th and 7th grade students in those participating schools during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years.

The cost of the two year UpStanders program is $100,000. The City has committed $50,000 toward this campaign with the other $50,000 coming from a mix of private sector sponsors.

In addition to a partnership with the Holocaust Center, Stand Up Orlando includes a partnership with the Zebra Coalition to hire an outreach coordinator that will provide specialized bullying prevention training, such as cultural competency and sensitivity training, mental health first-aid training, bullying prevention seminars and an interactive anti-bullying curriculum for school teachers, counselors and after school program coordinators.