BYTE to add new online bullying workshop with donation from CIBC

Chris accepts the generous donation from CIBC. From left to right: Chris Rider, BYTE’s Executive Director,
Christina Kramer, Vice-President of CIBC’s
Retail Distribution and Channel Strategy, Doug Graham, Yukon’s Minister of Health and Social Services and Whitehorse Branch Manager, Christopher Tessier.

There is so much to cover when it comes to staying safe online and although we do have aspects of this in all of our workshops, we’re hearing more and more the need to focus directly on it. Now, thanks to a generous donation from CIBC we’re going to be able to meet that need!

BYTE’s Executive Director, Chris Rider, was ecstatic to receive a cheque for $5000 from CIBC earlier this week. CIBC is making donations to organizations across the country in line with their mandate of working to help Kids, Cures and Community. We’re incredibly lucky to be the recipient of one of these grants.

“For the past four years we’ve been working with youth to stop bullying and this donation will help us to take this work to the next level, with a brand new cyber-bullying workshop” says Chris. “In addition, we now have the opportunity to revamp our existing bullying workshops to make sure that they are amongst the best in the world.“

The donation from CIBC will allow us to focus on developing new programming and to bring in experts with the knowledge to help design a workshop that’s based on the latest research and technologies. BYTE believes that education and developing an understanding of the root causes of bullying is the only way to stop it. Our bullying workshop explores what is considered bullying, the ramifications of it and how we can work together to stop it.

Tanyss Knowles is our Community Outreach Coordinator. She travels to northern communities to deliver workshops and has seen how vital it is to integrate more online culture into our programming.

“I have seen, first-hand, how much the youth I work with value talking about the culture of things like Facebook and sharing pictures and videos,” says Tanyss. “These are the issues of our generation.”

For a list of all workshops, and to find out more about what we do visit www.yukonyouth.com, and find us on Facebook and Twitter.