What is Facebook doing to help keep teens safe online? That is what David Steer, policy manager, safety programs at Facebook, will discuss in his keynote address at 
PREVNet’s 7th annual conference on bullying.
The conference, It’s Everybody’s Role to Promote Mental Health and Prevent Bullying, will take place May 7, at the Chestnut Conference Centre in Toronto. On May 8, there will be a full day “train the trainer” workshop with explicit and integrated training in fostering healthy social development with children and youth. Both will provide the opportunity to discover evidence-based knowledge, strategies, tools and tips to prevent bullying that can be used every day.
PREVNet (Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network) is Canada’s authority on research and resources for bullying 
prevention. It is an umbrella network of 68 leading Canadian research scientists, more than 100 graduate students and 54 youth-serving organizations.
Debra Pepler
With so much attention being focused on online bullying, Steer will deliver his timely address, “Innovating for Safety: How Facebook is Working to Keep Teens Safe Online”. In addition, a workshop by Professor Wayne MacKay and Dr. John LeBlanc, both of Dalhousie University, will address cyberbullying and the roles of parents, individuals and organizations. The pair will summarize the experiences in Nova Scotia and beyond, based on the work of the 2011-2012 Nova Scotia Task Force on Bullying and 
Cyberbullying. MacKay will discuss legal issues surrounding cyberbullying, while LeBlanc will discuss what individuals and organizations can do.
Wayne MacKay
York Professor Debra Pepler and Professor Wendy Craig of Queen’s University, PREVNet scientific co-directors, will open the conference by talking about why relationships with children and youth matter. Pepler will also talk later in the day about the role of leadership, and Craig will look at what schools can do to reduce bullying and the role of assessment.
There will be six workshops to choose from in the morning session and another six for 
the afternoon, followed by a youth panel discussion and closing remarks.
John LeBlanc
Joanne Cummings of PREVNet will take participants through the Canadian bullying prevention legislation, the PREVNet bullying prevention policy checklist and what happens on the ground, during one of the early workshops.
“Relations Can Traumatize – Relations Can Heal: How Can Educators Promote Healing Relationships to Help Children Exposed to Family 
Violence and/or Bullying?” will be presented by Professors Thormod Idsøe and Ella Cosmovici Idsøe of the University of Stavanger, Norway, in the morning.
Catherine Bradshaw
Professor Catherine Bradshaw of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence will conduct an afternoon workshop on “Preventing Bullying and Related Mental Health Problems through Positive Behavioural Interventions and Supports (PBIS)”.
For more information on the agenda and workshops, click here. To register, click here.