HI FRIENDS!! This January is Green Dot Awareness Month! The beginning of the year is the perfect time to start reflecting and setting goals for yourself. Ever heard of a New Year’s resolution? Well it’s time to set yours. As always, ours is to add more Green Dots to our map! We can’t fulfill our New Year’s resolution without your help. That’s right. YOU! This year YOU can make a difference on our map by either changing your own outlook on how situations are handled amongst your peers or helping others see situations in a different light. Don’t think you can do it? Well we think you can.
Influencing your peers to make more positive choices in social situations may seem like a tough task, but making simple choices can go a long way. Being a leader in a social group may be difficult for some students and easier for others. If you find being a leader challenging when it comes to social interaction in a group with friends, just keep in mind that minor positive actions and simple choices can have a significant impact on someone else’s life. To effectively combat a social situation gone, a helpful tactic is to keep the three Ds in mind: Direct, Delegate, and Distract.
If you feel like you are ready to intervene in a situation, start with letting your fellow peer know that they might think what they did was okay, but it wasn’t cool at all. If you don’t feel comfortable with this step just yet, opt to delegate. To do this you can report an inappropriate social media post that relates to the situation or tell an adult or friend what is going on. To distract, you can take away attention from the situation by doing something simple such as spilling a drink or dropping your backpack.
There is no need to bite off more than you can chew. This year, focus on paying attention to how simple actions can play a role a momentous role in transforming a Red Dot into a Green Dot. It’s the little things that count! We hope you will make one of your resolutions to pay attention to the little things. That way we will all be step closer to helping our community become a more positive and GREEN environment!
This year, start the trend that it’s cool to care, and it’s cool to be a Green Dotter!!