Program uses drama to help create safe, caring schools
TORONTO – Kid-Safe Productions are helping teach children their responsibility in creating a safe school environment through interactive drama workshops and musicals.
Kid-Safe Productions has produced musical plays and artistic programs for young audiences in schools since the program started in 2000. Kid-Safe Productions creates dramatic programming for students focusing on bullying prevention, character building and empathy.
Founder Tricia Myles says teaching the students empathy is necessary to combat bullying.
“Empathy is an important topic because I think without empathy you’re not ever really going to understand bullying or any other of the topics that we cover,” Myles said. “We think that drama has got to be the best way to deal with empathy because when you’re acting you’re doing nothing else but being in somebody else’s shoes.”
The workshops allow students to experience what it feels like to be a bully, someone being bullied or a bystander. The programs are designed to help junior and intermediate students create a positive and caring school environment.
“I learned that empathy means, if you bully someone you have to try to think about how would you feel if you got bullied,” said Selena Ramcharran-Smith, a grade 4 student at Heritage Park Public School.
Tricia started Kid-Safe Productions to inspire change in children by creating safe schools through drama and musical plays.
“I was bullied when I was in grade 8,” Myles said. “And back then, there wasn’t a lot of talk about it, I went to see my own teacher and she said- “Well what do you want me to do about it.”