CEO of New Bullying Prevention Startup

One of the best interventions for chronic bullying is group therapy - an ideal setting to build social, problem-solving, and coping skills. Yet 98% of therapy is individual.

So why isn't there more group therapy? Sourcing groups of similar-aged students who are available at the same time requires a pool of participants larger than most communities, and students are often reluctant to report bullying in the first place.

Our approach is simple: Zoom-based group therapy cohorts for bullying victims. This solves both problems at once: cohorts are drawn from across the country, and no two attendees attend the same school.

For providers, we handle the marketing and administrative overhead so they can simply log in and provide care while earning a higher rate than they would in an individual session. For schools, we are a welcome resource they can share with parents.

It's already working: we've supported a bullying research clinic to pilot these groups for the past two years, and the results look great.

Who this is for

This is a leadership role for someone with experience scaling a high-growth startup or working in a demanding professional services environment like management consulting, finance or corporate law. You should have a track record of delivering at a high level across a wide variety of workstreams.

Most importantly, you should be deeply passionate about bullying prevention.

Your goals for the first year

• Set up clinical, technology, compliance, and office operations for a telehealth startup
• Develop a playbook for approaching school counselors across the country, encouraging them to share us as a resource with their parent communities
• Develop a playbook for recruiting, evaluating, and training group facilitators
• Hire a team to scale your efforts
• Work closely with our founder, who previously built and sold a large technology company, and with our board of experts across bullying research, telehealth, and education

Compensation

We offer attractive compensation and benefits. Although organized as a non-profit, we are a high-performance organization aiming to recruit the best possible talent. There will be significant further upside for the management team able to scale this into a national organization.

Please reach out with interest or questions: team@outsidesupport.org

Research

Our approach is grounded in research on bullying victimization, mental health impacts, and effective interventions.

Research underway

Bullying, Empowerment, and Learning Online Network Group (BELONG)

BRAVE Lab, University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Program details

• Free online group program led by trained facilitators for middle school students (grades 6-8) who have experienced bullying.
• Six-week weekly Zoom sessions with a facilitator and 4-5 same-age, same-gender peers.
• Focuses on identifying bullying, building problem-solving and coping skills, and strengthening peer connections.

Research papers

Empirical and theoretical foundations of family interventions to reduce the incidence and mental health impacts of school bullying victimization

Karyn L. Healy, Hannah J. Thomas, Matthew R. Sanders & James G. Scott (2022)
International Review of Psychiatry, 34:2, 140-153. DOI

• "There has been substantial longitudinal research on the relationship between the ability to regulate emotions and bullying victimisation: internalising problems are both risk factors and consequences of bullying."
• "Emotional reactivity or dysregulation has been found to be the single most important predictor in the emergence of chronic victimisation."
• "Supportive relationships with both peers and family are protective against bullying victimisation and the mental health consequences of being bullied."

Examining the Effectiveness of School-Bullying Intervention Programs Globally: a Meta-analysis

Gaffney, H., Farrington, D.P. & Ttofi, M.M. (2019)
International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 1, 14-31. DOI

• Online environments can encourage disclosure about bullying due to perceived anonymity, trust, and privacy.

Hypotheses for possible iatrogenic impacts of school bullying prevention programs

Karyn L. Healy (2020)
Child Development Perspectives, 14(4), 221-228.

• Discusses how some school anti-bullying policies can be counterproductive.

Method of Nursing Interventions to Reduce the Incidence of Bullying and Its Impact on Students in School: A Scoping Review

Yosep, I.; Hikmat, R.; Mardhiyah, A.; Hazmi, H.; Hernawaty, T. (2022)
Healthcare, 10, 1835. DOI

• Resilience-based group programs can be an effective intervention to reduce bullying.

Advisors

We are supported by a panel of experts in clinical care, research, and bullying prevention.