Monday, August 5, 2013


 Buy a $5 sport bag and support Team Up to Stop Bullying℠

Visit your local Sears store between 8/11-9/7, purchase this denim sports bag and Sears will donate $1 of the purchase price to Team Up to Stop Bullying. Plus, Shop Your Way℠ members get a coupon to earn $5 back in points (5,000 points) on your next qualifying purchase of $5 or more.*

 Bags are available in 700 participating Sears locations.  Promotion runs in-store only at participating Sears locations between 8/11/2013 and 9/7/2013, while quantities last. Buy the bag for $5 plus tax, and $1 from each sale will be donated to Boys & Girls Clubs of America through Team Up To Stop Bullying (up to a $100,000 donation). Boys & Girls Clubs of America is a 501(c)(3) organization which seeks to enable all young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. For more information about Boys & Girls Clubs of America, please visit www.bgca.org.

*Coupon valid 8/25/13-9/21/13. Restrictions and exclusions apply to coupon redemption.  See coupon inside bag for details

Win a pair of Kardashian Kollection jeans signed by one of the Kardashian  sisters!

As official ambassadors for Sears Team Up to Stop Bullying campaign, Kourtney, Kim and Khloe join Sears in raising their hand to take a stand against bullying. Enter for a chance to win one of three pair of autographed jeans at shopyourway.com/jeans.

For each entry, Sears will donate $1 to Team Up to Stop Bullying, a coalition of anti-bullying organizations dedicated to connecting students, parents and educators directly to solutions they can immediately use.








SolutionsforBullying@gmail.com www.SolutionsforBullying.com

Monday, February 4, 2013

Honestly Social is a great Cyberbullying Prevention Tool

SolutionsforBullying@gmail.com www.SolutionsforBullying.com

Allow me to share an important tool now available to all parents concerned with online safety and cyberbullying.

Honestly Social ( www.honestlysocial.com) is a monitoring tool that parents can use to be alerted to potentially dangerous issues on their child's social media account.

Right now, you can receive 50% off if you use the promo code above ( teamup) when you check out.

Additionally Honestly Social donates 10% of those proceeds to Team Up To Stop Bullying.

Its easy - keep your kids safe.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Monitoring Your Child On Social Media? Great Solution for Parents

SolutionsforBullying@gmail.com www.SolutionsforBullying.com


Honestly Social is a great tool for busy parents! Monitor your kids’ Facebook, protect
their reputation, and prevent bullying! Sign up now for 50% off! http://bit.ly/TO8964


Monday, November 5, 2012

Obama or Romney: Who will more likely end bullying?

SolutionsforBullying@gmail.com www.SolutionsforBullying.com


ASK YOURSELF: WHICH CANDIDATE WILL REALLY CARE ABOUT REDUCING BULLYING IN OUR SCHOOLS?

Read a full report from my friends at the Bully Project

http://thebullymovie.tumblr.com/

Very interesting reading!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Why Do We Forget to Talk About Real Solutions When Talking About The Bullying Epidemic?

SolutionsforBullying@gmail.com www.SolutionsforBullying.com



Several years ago, my family was impacted by bullying. Because we were able to find resources and solutions, we were able to move beyond the issue and thrive. After that, I realized that not everyone knows where to find solutions. October is National Bullying Prevention month and a time of year that we see instances of bullying spike in classrooms and communities. Nearly one in four children has been the victim of bullying[1] and 85 percent of the time no one intervenes to help[2].
Bullying is not a normal part of childhood and can no longer be tolerated in any form or excused as harmless teasing. As parents and educators, we are the agents of change to bullying behavior and the advocates for safer classrooms and communities for our children. We need to talk about the problem before it gets out of hand, before we see another tormented child on the evening news and before it’s too late for the victim. We need to understand the problem permeates every community and affects every family.
Most importantly, we need to talk more about real solutions.
A recent Harris Interactive survey of parents commissioned by Sears reveals that 73 percent believe parents are responsible for the prevention of bullying, 65 percent believe that teachers and schools are responsible and nearly 40 percent look to law enforcement for bully prevention[3].
Prevention doesn’t lie with one group, but rather society as a whole. Parents of the 13 million children who suffer from an acute bullying problem need a combination of stronger awareness programs, prevention through solutions that can be implemented at the home and school level and effective rehabilitation for bullies to reform their behavior. Further, we (parents and educators) need to start addressing acute bullying situations with effective solutions in the moment.
Prevention starts at home and continues at school. Parents should practice role playing exercises with their child so they know how to safely respond to a bully. The bullied child should be equipped with responses and actions to remove him or herself from the situation while still signaling that the bully’s actions will not be tolerated. Equally important, bystanders should be trained to safely intervene and adults who work with children should be required to receive training on bullying intervention.
If you suspect your child is being bullied, the first thing you should do is to make sure your child is safe, that he or she feels protected and that you are listening. Ignoring bullying does not work. Second, get the facts and document the incident. If there is even one episode where your child has been affected, parents should have a conversation with the principal, staff or teacher who was in charge when your child was bullied. From there, develop a plan to quickly solve the problem with your school.
Studies show that schools with anti-bullying programs that include solutions like those found via sears.com/TeamUp can experience up to a 50 percent decrease in bullying. A well-orchestrated school system includes prevention, reporting, victim support, consequence protocols, policies and reform/rehabilitation. Maintaining these systems is key to creating bully-free cultures in our schools.
In the simplest terms, whenever one child has demonstrated that the behavior from another child is making them uncomfortable or has asked that child to stop the behavior for the same reason and the child does not, on the second occasion it is bullying. Period.

Bullying is not a rite of passage, as many of us grew up to believe. But changing a culture and belief system can be hard. There must be an attitudinal shift to recognize that bullying can be solved. Solving the problem starts with access to information and empowerment to address the issue head on.
 
Earlier this year, Sears launched Team Up to Stop Bullying as the first bullying solutions and services coalition from a major retailer to provide immediate solutions that parents and schools can implement today. The program offers expertise from more than 70 leading bullying solutions organizations to help children who have been bullied find answers, give parents effective ways to prevent and resolve bullying and guide educators on how to establish bully reform programs at their school.
Team Up to Stop Bullying is providing access and empowerment and delivering real solutions to communities around the nation. As a nation, we have successfully changed widely held attitudes in the past and built a stronger and better place for our children. I believe we can do it again. Please do your part today.

Marie Newman
Bullying Solutions Family Advocate, Author, Mother and Business Owner, Director of Team Up to Stop Bullying.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

SolutionsforBullying@gmail.com www.SolutionsforBullying.com



NEW SURVEY REVEALS PROGRESS IN BULLYING PREVENTION
Sears Supports National Bullying Prevention Month in October with Savings Offer to Benefit Anti-bullying Charities
           
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., (Oct. 5, 2012) – A new survey from Sears shows that 93 percent of parents will tell their child not to ignore a bully and 60 percent advise them to tell a teacher about a bullying incident. These findings may indicate that anti-bullying awareness campaigns are having an impact, according to leading anti-bullying expert, Marie Newman, who partnered with Sears as managing director of Team Up to Stop Bullying.

Sears, through its Team Up to Stop Bullying initiative, announced the findings at the start of October, National Bullying Prevention month, to cast light on the pervasive issue, share solutions with parents, educators, children and communities and help put an end to bullying.

"The survey shows greater accountability when it comes to bullying, as well as its prevention. Of the parents surveyed, 73% believe that parents are responsible for the prevention of bullying, 65% believe that teachers and schools are responsible, while others believe that law enforcement and the greater community should be responsible for preventing bullying," said Newman. “Prevention doesn’t lie with one group, but rather with society as a whole. We’re encouraged by these results because they show progress toward finding the right solutions. That’s where Team Up to Stop Bullying comes in.”

During the month of October, Sears customers can shop to stop bullying by downloading a savings pass online at sears.com/TeamUp for 15 percent off on purchases of apparel, footwear and fine jewelry. When customers use the savings pass, Sears will donate five percent of their purchase (up to $50,000 total) to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America who will distribute part of the funds to charitable organizations affiliated with Team Up to Stop Bullying.

“Sears has always been focused on the American family and there is nothing more important to our employees and customers than the safety of our children,” said Lana Krauter, senior vice president and president of Sears Apparel. “This new data sheds more light on the need to help connect real solutions to the people who need them now.”

Sears launched Team Up to Stop Bullying in August as the first solutions-and service-based anti-bullying coalition, launched by a major retailer, to provide immediate solutions that parents and schools can implement today. The program offers expertise from more than 70 coalition members to help children who have been bullied find answers, give parents effective ways to prevent and resolve bullying and guide educators on how to establish bully reform programs at their school.
Additional findings from the Harris Interactive survey include:
·       Nearly two in five (39 percent) of parents whose child has been bullied says that local law enforcement is responsible for the prevention of bullying
·       Sixty-nine percent of parents believe that counseling a bully to understand the negative impact on his or her own life is most effective in reforming bullying behavior; 58 percent believe that counseling a bully to understand the negative effects on the bullied child’s life is most effective
·       Seventy percent of parents believe that developing a plan with their child’s school is the best way to stop a child from being bullied

Visit sears.com/TeamUp for more information and to find solutions that work for every family.
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Zeno Group from September 26th – 28th, 2012 among 2,523 adults ages 18 and older, among which 736 are parents of children age 17 and younger. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Danny Cohn, Zeno Group.

About Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD), is a leading broadline retailer providing merchandise and related services and is part of SHOP YOUR WAY, a social shopping experience where members have the ability to earn points and receive benefits across a wide variety of physical and digital formats through ShopYourWay.com.  Sears, Roebuck offers its wide range of home merchandise, apparel and automotive products and services through more than 2,000 Sears-branded and affiliated stores in the United States and Canada, which includes over 810 Full-line and more than 1,270 specialty stores in the U.S.   Sears, Roebuck also offers a variety of merchandise and services through sears.com, landsend.com, and specialty catalogs. Sears, Roebuck offers consumers leading proprietary brands including Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Lands' End -- among the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S.  The company is the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 11 million service calls made annually. For more information, visit the Sears, Roebuck website at www.sears.com or the Sears Holdings Corporation website at www.searsholdings.com.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

"Apple Does Not Care About Small Business"

SolutionsforBullying@gmail.com www.SolutionsforBullying.com

Wow! With the iCloud outage at Apple growing toward 36 hours (1.5 business days), I have had the occasion to speak to several customer service agents in their Apple Care group. Each of them indicated they were apologetic about the iCloud outage that many Apple customers are experiencing, but also indicated that Apple users "should not be using iCloud for business use and we do not have an 'ETA' on when it will be fixed."  Even when I escalated the complaint  up a few levels, I was met with the same response. Amazing. 

In fact, the Apple Care agents said that the Apple service contract does not guarantee against outages and "should not be used for business."

Fascinating.

As an aside, Small Business in the US as a percentage of our GDP:

Small business owners "Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll. • Generated 65 percent of net new jobs over the past 17 years. • Create more than half of the nonfarm private GDP."( source: SBA.gov)

So, Apple is recommending that 44% of private employers should not use their products?

Fascinating.

As the leader of two non-profits and an owner of a small business, I rely heavily on the 9 pieces of Apple hardware in my home office. Further, the countless applications and types of software are indispensable to those organizations. 

Further, this is the third major outage iCloud has has in 9 months. As all of you iCloud users will remember, we as consumers, were forced to move from MobileMe to iCloud by Apple earlier this year.

To be clear, Apple's sin in this episode is not the outage itself , rather it is the arrogance attached to the following actions:

1. Releasing a faulty and ill-tested product prematurely to make more money
2. Communicating to small business owners that they should not be using their products for business when clearly they are developed, made and marketed with small business in mind
3. Not prioritizing fixing an outage and lying on the systems support page about timing to resolve the issue.

I have been a huge fan of Apple for many years, but am ridiculously disappointed and frustrated to the point of moving all of my business and organizational needs to other 
technology leaders.

Other small business owners please sound off.