Committee for Children Releases Award-Winning Captain Compassion® Comic Empowering Kids to Prevent Bullying

Captain Compassion returns for National Bullying Prevention Month to help families and school communities take action against bullying behavior

SEATTLE, Sept. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Committee for Children is launching its fifth annual Captain Compassion campaign during National Bullying Prevention Month to teach kids how to prevent bullying in all forms, with a special emphasis on behavior motivated by racial bias. Developed by Committee for Children in 2018, Captain Compassion is an anti-bullying superhero who teaches upstanders how to recognize, report, and refuse bullying through a series of engaging, age-appropriate comic strips.

One out of five students report being bullied during the school year. In 2019, of the students who reported being bullied, race was the most frequently reported characteristic referred to by hate-related words. To help address this issue, this year's Captain Compassion comics focus on a school community that's struggling with the social-emotional effects of racially motivated bullying. With the help of Captain Compassion and her trusty sidekick Kid Kinder®, the entire school community learns how to stand up against bullying to create safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments where children of all backgrounds can thrive. 

"If we allow our children to experience bullying but ignore its effects, we're not setting them up for success," says developmental psychologist and Committee for Children VP of Education, Research, and Impact Tia Kim, Ph.D. "Effective bullying prevention requires a community-led approach to create safe environments where children can learn how to identify and report maltreatment. When there's action from an upstander—someone who intervenes on behalf of a person who's being bullied—it can reduce bullying by more than 50 percent."

Drawn from Committee for Children's decades of work in the field of bullying prevention, the Captain Compassion campaign presents free, award-winning comics that provide families, teachers, and caregivers with powerful, research-backed tips to empower their children and communities to stand up to bullying. The Captain Compassion site also includes resources like a Secret Decoder Wheel puzzle for kids, informative videos, downloadable posters, and more.

"For more than 40 years, Committee for Children has been dedicated to keeping children safe from all forms of violence and abuse, including bullying," says CEO Andrea Lovanhill. "With an increase in racially motivated bullying, as well as hate targeting LGBTQ+ youth this past year, it has never been more important to teach our children that they have a voice and the power to stand up for themselves and others."

To learn more about Captain Compassion and bullying prevention, visit CaptainCompassion.org each week this October to read brand-new comics and solve the Secret Decoder Wheel puzzle with the children in your life.

To learn more about social-emotional learning and Committee for Children, visit cfcchildren.org.

Committee for Children is a global nonprofit that has championed the safety and well-being of children through bullying prevention, child protection, and social-emotional learning (SEL) for more than 40

years. With a history of action and influence, we're known as a leader in social-emotional education and a force in advocacy, research, and innovation in the field. We take a comprehensive approach to SEL, promoting social-emotional well-being from birth to early adulthood—supporting not just classrooms, but entire communities. As our programs transform the lives of more than 24.4 million children per year, we rise to meet societal challenges to ensure children everywhere can thrive. Learn more at cfchildren.org.

Media Contacts
Shauna McBride, [email protected], 206-612-8718
M'Bilia Meekers, [email protected], 206-438-6541
Sarah Fogel, [email protected], 212 445 8372

SOURCE Committee for Children