We have a board of representatives. This is a group of young people who have either been bullied or have experience of the hurt that bullying can cause. Our Board makes sure that the experiences and opinions of children and young people - from right across England - are listened to and acted upon. Let us introduce you to them.

Adam and Muzzy (West Midlands)
Adam and Muzzy are from the ME2 group in the West Midlands. They are part of a group of able-bodied and disabled young people from Dudley. They work to tackle the bullying of disabled young people and recently ran a successful campaign titled ‘Don’t stick it, Stop it.’

Adam has been trained on how to help to prevent bullying and is passionate about helping to stamp it out. Muzzy has loads of opinions and experiences - and that means he has contributed a lot to our work and has taken part in various projects around anti-bullying.

Laura-Liz (West Midlands)
Laura-Liz is 18 and won the Diana Award for ‘Inspiring and improving the lives of others’. Since then, she has developed a real interest in children’s rights and welfare. This led her to being part of a group that wrote a report about the ‘State of Children’s Rights in England’ and presented it to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, Switzerland.
Laura-Liz has been a student ambassador for her secondary school for five years, a student teaching assistant for children with disabilities for three years and a peer mentor for two. She is also a member of the UK Youth Parliament, regional and district youth forums and CRAE. Laura-Liz has set up her own national campaign, ‘Stress and Strain of School’, about promoting and improving the mental health and wellbeing of students including those who have been bullied.          

Maxine (West Midlands)
Maxine is 17 and won an Anti-Bullying Award for helping to set up a peer counselling system in her school. Maxine has since been highly involved with the work of the Diana Award and acts as an ambassador for the organisation.

Nathan (North West)
Nineteen year-old Nathan won an Anti-Bullying Award for giving up his time to mentor vulnerable students and to organise anti-bullying events around his school. He is an active Diana Award member and regularly provides expertise and assistance to the organisation. He is also a social entrepreneur and has set up his own internet business as well as working for his local MP. Nathan has a keen interest in youth studies and is working towards becoming a youth worker or teacher.

Chrisie (North West)
Chrisie is one of the newest Anti-Bullying Award holders. She has worked actively for many years with the North West Young Anti-Bullying Alliance and has made many presentations to local schools. She has also set up her own peer mentoring scheme and intends to continue supporting local people. She is a passionate anti-bullying ambassador for the North West.

Dave (North East)
Dave is one of the original members of Young ABA. He was bullied early in his school days but came through this with a real strength of character. This makes him a fantastic ambassador for anti-bullying work. He has run anti-bullying groups at regional level and is hugely committed to Young ABA and working with local authorities to raise awareness of bullying.

Charlotte (Yorkshire and Humberside)
Charlotte was part of the hugely influential North Lincolnshire Youth Anti-bullying Council, all of whom have undertaken intensive peer mentor training and basic counseling skills. They have also been involved in developing the LEAs, the children’s and young peoples plan and anti-bullying policy and strategy. Charlotte herself has undertaken training on personal protection and the prevention of bullying.

Sally (East Midlands)
Fifteen year old Sally is currently the youngest member of the board and, for the past four years, has been a really big part of her school’s PALS team. She is a brilliant ambassador for anti-bullying and, having been bullied herself, has experience of how it can best be dealt with. Sally is keen to be involved and to represent the East Midlands.

Ellice (Eastern)
Ellice started an anti-bullying project in her local area a few years ago. She felt the need to bring their community closer together and to give online access to other young people who were suffering from the effects of bullying. Their project is called JustSmile and has helped many young people in their local area and beyond. Ellice is now one of our most active members.

Natalie (Eastern)
Natalie is a keen filmmaker and won her award for helping her anti-bullying group make a film on the issue of bullying. As well as having peer mentoring experience she has worked on a broad range of issues as part of Young ABA and the Diana Award. Natalie has spoken at a regional and national level, contributed to guidance documents, worked with the media and created resources and written articles. She is one of the older and more experienced members of the board.

Roxy (London)
Roxy is part of the STAGS (St Albans Girls School) Hear 4U team. The group was set up to help and mentor younger girls in the school and has been developing local community-led anti-bullying schemes.

Sarah-Jane (London)
Sarah-Jane also comes from STAGS and is a keen member of Young ABA. She is also part of the Advisory Group on Violence Against Women and Girls at the DCSF.

Michael (South East)
A former peer mentor in secondary school, Michael is working closely with Croydon Council to open up a youth centre to tackle bullying issues. Always keen to get involved with anti-bullying activities at a local level, he has demonstrated his willingness to work at a national level. Michael is an avid reporter on Radiowaves’ Diana Award Channel.

Ben (South East)
Ben won the Diana Anti-Bullying Award for his inspirational work with Schools OUT and LGBT History Month. Here, he helped create a Student Tool Kit aimed at reducing homophobic bullying in schools and has also led workshops on the subject. He also helped co-ordinate 3 Youth specific groups in Surrey. Ben has run many workshops with support from Young ABA on Cyberbullying and is currently working to educate parents about it.

Alex (South East and general representative for Anti-Bullying Ambassadors in schools)
Alex has spearheaded awareness of anti-bullying in the South East and has set up his own anti-bullying programme called 'Heads High Anti-Bullying'. This has since been rolled out in many schools in his local area. With this expertise, Alex provides advice to Young ABA on ways to implement anti-bullying projects in schools.

Ellen and Amber (South West)
Ellen and Amber are team leaders of the peer mentoring scheme at Budmouth Technology College. The team consists of 55 mentors and they are at present working with 82 children and young people. In recent months, they have turned an already successful team into an outstanding, highly oversubscribed service. Ellen and Amber have worked with teachers to organise and prepare a one hour session based on mentoring training and have delivered training to new recruits, as well as running awareness-raising workshops for adults outside the college.