Using your WITS: Empowering children to be safe, positive and confident in their community

This article was created for Victoria Foundation, and produced independently by Capital Daily. It was approved by Victoria Foundation before it was published.

‍

Have you used your WITS today?

In other words, do you know what to do when someone is trying to put you down? Each letter of this acronym represents a different step of a strong and healthy response to a difficult situation: W for Walk Away, I for Ignore, T for Talk it Out, and S for Seek Help.

WITS, a local non-profit in Victoria that provides effective bullying-prevention strategies, equips thousands of children across Canada with tools just like these to manage peer victimization. The organization is committed to ensuring every child has a safe and supportive community in which to grow and thrive, by providing curated children’s books, cross-curriculum lessons and other engaging content to schools.

“We’re trying to bring positivity and kindness into people's lives, starting with children, so that next generations may not see victimization or discrimination,” explained WITS executive director Andy Telfer.

A program created by educators for educators, WITS gives children aged 4 to 12 the tools to manage conflicts and make safe, positive choices within their community, while giving teachers, parents and other caregivers a common language to discuss conflict resolution. Proven to be flexible and easy to implement, WITS fits seamlessly with other school routines—educators and school staff simply review the contents of the WITS modules, place posters, banners and books in accessible areas, and review WITS principles with their students.

“We provide all the materials, lesson plans, videos and other tools that are needed for educators to implement our programs in schools with really minimal input directly from our core personnel. So, in essence, we're making it really easy for educators to teach kids to be kind and inclusive, and to manage conflict on their own,” said Telfer.

With 1,600 schools and 21,000 educators and community leaders participating in WITS programs worldwide, WITS has had a tremendous impact on hundreds of thousands of Canadian youth, as well as schools in the U.S., Egypt, Korea and Belgium. Since its start on Vancouver Island in the 1990s, the program has spread to communities in every province and territory in Canada, including more than 50 Indigenous communities.

And though WITS programs are based in schools, they impact the entire community by providing tools to families and community leaders as well as to young students.

“‘Have you used your WITS?’ The kids all know what that means. The teachers know what that means. The parents even have quoted to me, ‘Well, he used his WITS today’ and so on,” said Louie Scigliano, principal of Glanford Middle School in Greater Victoria. “It’s a very natural fit for me to incorporate WITS into other things we are doing, [and] very useful to use daily in our classroom.”

The organization has also implemented several other important programs such as LEADS, a progression of WITS that challenges students to become leaders in their communities, and the Pink Shirt Project, an initiative that encourages students to work together in a creative process to develop unique solutions that meet challenges in their schools and communities.

And that’s far from all—WITS currently has several new projects underway, such as the Focus Modules, age-appropriate learning packages on specific topics such as race, gender identity, diverse abilities and online safety, and ongoing work with Indigenous communities, working together with an Indigenous council to develop new programs for Indigenous schools.

WITS is currently seeking educators who can help develop these programs, and is always seeking volunteers (both locally and remotely) who can offer their time and skills to multiple areas within the organization— click here to see a full list of opportunities. Anyone who is able to donate is more than welcome to do so on the WITS website, with all the proceeds going towards program development and opportunities for schools to be involved.

Programs provided at WITS would not be possible without the work of donors such as the Victoria Foundation, providing the necessary resources to keep supporting schools and empowering children to live confidently in their day to day lives.

“We cannot say enough about what that support has meant to us,” said Telfer.