The Community Foundation of Greene County awarded Blueprints with a $1,500 grant to support a community partnership project focused on educating parents, school-aged, and young children in the Jefferson-Morgan School District about the safe and appropriate use of technology and digital media. The partnership included Blueprints, Jefferson-Morgan School District, Washington Teen Outreach, and Trying Together.
The partners collaborated to provide a “Common Sense Media” workshop for parents of children birth to age eight, along with a series of workshops about preventing and addressing “Cyber-Bullying” in adolescents as a part of the Social Studies and Health classes at Jefferson-Morgan Middle School for seventh and eighth graders.
In the Common Sense Media workshop, families of young children had an opportunity to play and explore with digital resources and engage in rich conversation about digital citizenship, and how to best support children in the digital age. The Cyber-Bullying workshop sessions focused on helping middle school students understand the impact cyber-bullying can have on a young person’s self-confidence, health, and educational outlook.
The Jefferson-Morgan Middle School students also engaged in activities promoting the idea of creating positive online communities and communication, as well as recognizing what they can do to help when they see this type of online behavior occurring. This community partnership project was an extension of previous Community Innovations grant funded through the PA Department of Education, the Office of Child Development and Early Learning.