Ophelia Project visits Bloomington

An innovative conference came to Bloomington this weekend. The Monroe County Ophelia Project worked with the national branch to organize a way to use pre-existing programs in the Bloomington community, such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Girls Inc. and Girl Scouts, to spread its message and mentoring program.\nCommunity volunteers created a model in which the Ophelia Project would serve as an umbrella organization for other mentoring programs. Each organization would educate its mentors about relational aggression -- the covert way in which children use words and body language to insult others to gain power over their victims and respect from their peers. The mentors would then teach children how to treat one another better and how to deal with the effects of relational aggression when it occurs, whether the child is a victim, aggressor or "kid in the middle."\nMembers of the national branch said they were enthusiastic about the Bloomington model's potential. \n"If this works in one year, we will use you as a model for a national initiative," said Erika Dauber, communications director for The National Ophelia Project.\nThe Monroe County Ophelia Project is currently planning to use the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation's "Living Well" program as a launching pad for its initiative model. HPER Professor Carol Kennedy said plans are in the work for a long-term program that will train students in relational aggression and then send them out in the community to work for the Ophelia Project and similar organizations. \n"Our new president is very into leadership development," Kennedy said. "HPER is trying to become a funnel of resources. We want to find out what the pre-existing programs are doing and work with them."\nOphelia Project CEO Mary Baird said children relate better to college-aged mentors because they perceive them as young and cool -- someone they aspire to be. \nDauber, who recently graduated from college, volunteered as a mentor for the Ophelia Project during college but said she really started noticing what a difference mentoring makes in children's lives once she started working for the organization full time.\n"I was never as proud as when I started looking at the program from the inside," Dauber said.\nThe Monroe County Ophelia Project has already implemented its program through several pre-existing institutions. Bloomington Playwrights Project has started a program called "All the Rage on Stage," in which kids write skits about their experiences with relational aggression and then act them out on stage. \n"After spring break, we will be starting the production phase of the program to play at the beginning of May," said Breshaun Joyner, education director of Bloomington Playwrights Project.\nSue Wellman, Ophelia Project founder and president, said before any progress can be made with relational aggression, adults must examine their own behavior and make changes in themselves. \n"Every place we have gone to give this presentation -- the elephant in the living room is adult relational aggression," Wellman said. "We have a long way to go on this. It's a very real problem."\nThe Monroe County Ophelia Project is looking for volunteers of all ages. To volunteer, contact Michelle Martin-Colman, co-director of the Monroe County Ophelia Project, at opheliam@sbcglobal.net. To learn more about The Ophelia Project, visit its Web site at www.opheliaproject.org.\n-- Contact staff writer Jenica Schultz at jwschult@indiana.edu.