Attendees:
- CSN: Lauren Gilman, Shannon Reynolds
- California: Jaclyn Pasco, Anjelica Montano, Amanda Mangurten
- Indiana: Sarah Iwinski-Wallace, Sophia Schadewald, Keeley Higley
- Kentucky: Kellsie Sutherland, Christina Howard
- Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI): Maxine Pangelinan, Heather Pangelinan, Richard Sablan
It was wonderful to have such a robust group on our Bullying Prevention Topic Call last week, with five out of six states/jurisdictions in attendance. For those of you who could not join us: we started out with the idea of a “January Reset” to start out the new year, and reviewed the CSLC model for quality improvement (see slide #9 in attached presentation).
Team Updates:
The California team noted that their work this year is foundational; they are compiling information about bullying and prevention efforts in their state and nationally, and creating a guidance document to share data, best practices, and resources.
In Vermont, the BP work is all about collaboration among three state agencies (Health, Education, and the Department of Mental Health). They are working towards creating a training for school nurses and others who support young people outside of the classroom, to prevent, identify, and address bullying behaviors.
Indiana is in the “Assess and Plan” stage. They received some funding to implement BP programs in Marion County (Indianapolis area) and will be selecting three middle schools to receive a stipend to launch a BP initiative, chosen from a “menu” of evidence-based programs that they are developing.
In Kentucky, Kellsie is getting up to speed with her new role as Health Program Administrator; she and Dr. Howard will be meeting as co-chairs soon to plan for next steps. They will be developing an outreach plan to increase the number of health departments using Sources of Strength for bullying prevention in the next fiscal year.
The CNMI team is in the “design and prepare” stage: making connections with partners, building connections with schools, and learning about current BP practices with school-age youth. They have learned that the public schools have recently launched a wellbeing/school climate curriculum (Character Strong) and that some schools may also be using Sources of Strength.
The Massachusetts team was unable to attend, but in an email that Jane sent earlier this month, she noted that they are also working in collaboration with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) – a lot of cross-agency collaboration going on in this cohort! 😊
Upcoming Events:
February 10th from 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET
- State Technical Assistance Webinar (STAW): Top Trends Driving Public Health Communication in 2026
Click here to Join the Webinar on February 18, 2026 from 2:00 – 3:00PM ET
- Our next Bullying Prevention Topic Call will take place on Tuesday, March 10th, at 4pm ET
- Save the Dates for CSLC’s Learning Session on May 6 & 7 (hybrid format)