The Cardiff Against Bullying Young Person’s Conference provided a forum for discussion and debate.
Delegates attended talks from inspirational keynote speakers such as Beth Fisher, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Ambassador for Sports Cymru and member of the Wales international hockey team, and Jessica Leigh Jones, UK Young Engineer of the Year 2012 and STEM Ambassador. Mr Leigh works with schools on a voluntary basis, providing support and encouragement as well as being a role-model for young people and children in science, technology, engineering and maths.
The students participated in workshops aimed at encouraging young people to explore their own identity and celebrate diversity.
There was also a thought-provoking performance by the Digon group from Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr, who started an anti-homophobia campaign called “digon”, which means “enough” in Welsh. Digon was set up to make sure all pupils at the school were comfortable in their environment and to eradicate the use of homophobic language.
Speaking about the conference, which took place ahead of this month’s Anti-Bullying Week, Cardiff Against Bullying strategy co-ordinator Rachel Beddoe said: “It was great to see students from Cardiff’s schools coming together to raise awareness and make a stand against bullying. We hope that our conference challenged our students to look at the way they interact with each other once they are back in our schools and to stand up against bullying in any form.”
City of Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for education and skills, Councillor Julia Magill, added: “I’m incredibly proud of the young people who have been involved in this conference and I’m sure it has been a very useful tool in educating the Cardiff students attending on the facts and effects of bullying in any form and also the positive benefits of wellbeing.”