“We can teach our children to treat others how they would like to be treated – with kindness and respect. It’s time we all choose kindness. Do it for Dolly.” – Kate and Tick Everett, Dolly’s parents.
D
olly Everett was a friendly 14-year-old girl from the Northern Territory.
Brought up on a property 400 kilometres from Katherine, Dolly loved horses. She loved cooking. She was a happy, high-spirited country kid from a close and loving family.
Dolly went to boarding school 4,000 kilometres from home. That’s when the bullying started – when Dolly was just 12.
Dolly was bullied in person and online. It was relentless and sustained and it changed her forever.
Her father, Tick Everett’s heartfelt call for a kinder world went viral. It touched the hearts of many Australians and was covered extensively around the world.
Determined that no other family will suffer the same devastation, Kate and Tick decided to work with the Foundation to ensure their anti-bullying initiative Dolly’s Dream was in good hands.
Through Dolly’s Dream, we empower and educate young people and parents to prevent bullying – online, at school, and beyond. Our programs focus on supporting rural, regional and remote communities, helping to start important conversations to change the culture of bullying.
Dolly’s Dream exists to change the culture of bullying, reduce its impact on young people’s mental health, and ultimately prevent the lives of more young people being lost.
In only four years, Dolly’s Dream has grown to see its education programs and workshops help more than 40,000 children and young people and their families, a free telephone support line established for those impacted by bullying and associated mental health problems, thousands of community events, and a huge increase in awareness and understanding around the damage bullying can cause.
We’ve come a long way in recognising that bullying can have a long-lasting and even devastating effect on children and young people.
But online bullying is still happening – some reports say as high as 30 per cent of our children and young people have experienced bullying. And that’s unacceptable.
Young people know this is a big issue for them.
Australian teens consistently rate bullying and emotional abuse as one of the top 10 issues they feel very concerned about. We also know it’s something parents are very worried about – the majority of calls and emails we receive are from parents looking for advice on to help their child who is being bullied.
We want to see children and young people have a greater awareness, increased coping skills and much more support to deal with bullying and what can come from it – things such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders and self-harm – no matter where they live in Australia.
Dolly’s Dream has grown very fast, as its messages of kindness and taking a stand against bullying resonate stronger than ever.
Dolly's Dream is proud to partner with the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, working together to help realise Dolly's Dream of a kinder, safer world for all our children.
