On March 22, The Friendship Circle, a West Bloomfield-based organization that offers support to families with children who have special needs, launched a brand new social movement, "Defeat the Label", an anti-bullying campaign.
DefeatTheLabel.com, the movement's home base, allows users to register free of charge on the site and receive weekly call-to-action missions via email. Each mission calls for the user to perform an act of good within their school, social groups, family and other community-based organizations. By performing these deeds once a week, the Defeat The Label (DTL) team will slowly transform those involved into less judgmental, more tolerant and more inclusive people.
Recent missions have had participants leaving encouraging notes for others, embracing new friends and calling old friends to wish them well. One person started a Facebook account with the name "Bee Confident," and sent positive, encouraging messages to 15 people. "I even sent it to one of my teachers. Most all of them replied to me... 'you made my day...thank you'," the participant wrote.
Recent missions have had participants leaving encouraging notes for others, embracing new friends and calling old friends to wish them well. One person started a Facebook account with the name "Bee Confident," and sent positive, encouraging messages to 15 people. "I even sent it to one of my teachers. Most all of them replied to me... 'you made my day...thank you'," the participant wrote.
The Defeat the Label in-school anti-bullying curriculum was designed with the professional consultation of Wayne State University. Unlike other anti-bullying programs that occur as an assembly or "challenge day," the DTL curriculum is a monthly seminar that takes place during the school day. Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills and Walled Lake Western are currently participating as the first pilot schools to adopt the DTL curriculum.
The Friendship Circle's goal is to mobilize 10 local high schools to adopt the DTL curriculum and promote the website throughout their student bodies.
In an effort to build upon the existing momentum, Defeat The Label has launched a guerrilla style marketing campaign. The Friendship Circle’s volunteer base of over 400 local teens will be flooding their schools with thought-provoking posters and thumb bands advertising the website. A clothing line has also been launched for supporters both locally and globally- orders have been placed as far as Australia and Israel.
The Defeat the Label campaign has also received celebrity endorsements, most recently from Atlantic Recording artist, Cody Simpson.
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