NCAB: What is NCAB?

Vision

Creating caring communities for children.

Mission

The mission of the National Centre Against Bullying (NCAB) is, through research, knowledge dissemination and advocacy, to create schools and other environments that are strong, connected and caring, and to reduce bullying and minimise its harm on young people.

What is NCAB?

NCAB is a peak body Chaired by Alastair Nicholson AO, retired Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia. Governance of the organisation is provided by the Executive Committee, members of which serve for one to two years and are selected by the Chair for the range of skills they offer.

The Advisory Council is composed of members who are knowledgeable in relevant fields and represent individual, organisational and sectoral positions. This group formed the original National Coalition Against Bullying, which was established in 2002 to advise and inform the Australian community on the issue of the bullying of children.

Based on the Kandersteg Declaration against Bullying in Children and Youth 2007 (see below), NCAB’s remit has been broadened to include safety and well being in the school and community.

Aims and objectives

To provide national leadership in addressing bullying and other negative behaviours and achieve safe and connected environments for young people in:
- Communities
- Schools
- Homes
- Cyberspace
To change attitudes about bullying, and related issues, and increase awareness of the harm it causes to individuals and society
To build the capacity, knowledge and skill base of a range of sectors to enable them to address the issues of bullying and well being
To drive evidence-based practice in the fields of bullying and well being

Kandersteg Declaration Against Bullying in Children and Youth

The Kandersteg Declaration, released in Australia at the recent NCAB International Conference, was unanimously adopted by the National Centre Against Bullying at the Conference.

The Declaration holds that governments, schools, communities and individuals must:

Stop bullying now in all the places where children and youth live, work, and play.
Start prevention efforts early and continue these through childhood and adolescence, targeting known risk and protective factors and promoting healthy relationships.
Educate and empower all adults involved with children and youth to promote healthy relationships and prevent bullying.
Use policy and prevention programs, based on scientific research, that are appropriate for age, gender, and culture, and that involve families, peers, schools, and communities.
Provide ongoing assessment and monitoring necessary to evaluate the success of policy and programs and to guarantee the rights of children and youth.

Click here to read the Kandersteg Declaration or visit www.kanderstegdeclaration.org

A message from the Chair

"The National Centre Against Bullying has a tough, but I believe achievable job to do, and that is to seek solutions to the problem of bullying with the single aim of ridding the world of what is a global pandemic. Our objective is to promote a tolerant, inclusive, balanced society, for bullying to be on the public agenda nationally as a community issue that can and must be tackled, to raise awareness of the seriousness of bullying in Australian society. We aim to support schools through our coalition by providing expert advice, through its members, to those developing and implementing school, work and community based programs.

Currently 1 in 6 Australian children are bullied and we know that Children who are bullied are 3 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms.

One study of 500 children found that aggressive behaviour at the age of eight was a powerful predictor of criminality and violent behaviour at the age of 30. Former bullies were four times more likely than other pupils to engage in relatively serious crime. By the age of 24, 60 per cent of bullies had a criminal record.

School bullies are particularly at risk of becoming serious violent offenders and are more likely to raise children who themselves become bullies.

And so our job is a very important one. It is to identify, develop and refine new ways of dealing with bullying and to draw the issue to the attention of politicians and the public and to encourage them to take action."

Alastair Nicholson AO RFD
Chief Justice of The Family Court of Australia
Chair of NCAB