Argos corporate news
Argos joins forces with Kidscape to launch national anti-bullying campaign and help 5,000 schools
20 June 2005
Argos and Kidscape today joined forces to launch a major new anti-bullying campaign in conjunction with the Daily Mirror and TV celebrity, Simon Cowell.
Cowell, who is known from Pop Idol and the X Factor, will front the campaign and help tackle the real issues faced by tens of thousands of children every day.
“The statistics speak for themselves,” said Michele Elliott, director of Kidscape, the only nationwide charity dedicated to preventing bullying and child sexual abuse. “Kidscape receives 16,000 calls a year from distressed parents of bullied children. Hundreds of these children have either attempted or thought about suicide. With the fantastic support of Argos we will be able to teach all of these children how to overcome the torment of bullying and go on to lead happy and successful lives.”
The campaign, which will run for 10 days, will give Mirror readers the opportunity to register their local secondary school across England, Wales and Northern Ireland via a form in the paper for a special anti-bullying pack consisting of booklets and copies of a DVD which have been funded by Argos. Approximately 5,000 schools will then receive the pack at the start of the new school year in September.
Argos managing director, Sara Weller, said she was delighted that Argos could make a real difference to such a real problem by supporting this project: “The impact of bullying affects so many families in so many ways that the work Kidscape does is so very vital. As we are such a family focused retailer, we are committed to helping local communities and funding projects such as these where the help we can provide will have a huge impact across thousands of children and their families.”
And the impact is huge. Part of Argos’ ongoing support is to fund some of Kidscape’s ZAP courses – one-day assertiveness training sessions for badly bullied children – which help over 600 children a year.
“In these sessions groups of children learn non-threatening techniques which let them regain self-confidence and teach them how to deal with bullies and bullying behaviour,” added Michele Elliott. “The courses show a huge success rate with over 85% of participants telling us that they are no longer bullied after attending a ZAP day.”
