Stymie Launch

Maffra Secondary students participated in our Stymie Re-Launch last week, it was great to see so many students listening actively and showing respect throughout the sessions. Please see the attached document for further information about Stymie and how it works. If you would like further information please contact a member of the wellbeing team.

Emily Boyle

Wellbeing Leader 

Hi! We love being part of your school community! ...But we were thinking that you might like to know a little more about us. So, what is Stymie? Stymie is an old fashioned word that means to stop or thwart. Stymie empowers young people with options to confidentially take action when they see or experience harm or feel alone. The Stymie webapp is a confidential messaging service that delivers encrypted, anonymous notifications to authorised recipients within a few seconds of being sent (including uploaded evidence where appropriate). Once the notification is sent, authorised recipients within your school receive the information and respond according to your wellbeing framework and child protection policies. In 2022, there were 95201 Stymie notifications delivered Stymie has been operating in your school for a while now. Our team launched Stymie in your school with a powerful launch day educational event. The launch day was delivered to the entire community (for years 7 to12 and teachers) Where we described the reason why Stymie is important and introduces the caring, empathetic and appropriate use of the platform. We discussed issues and behaviours in society that are concerning, and how easily we too can be bystanders. What we do, complements the wellbeing framework that already exists in your school. Since launching we have introduced Stymie to more than 700,000 students. We are now operating in over 200 schools in Australia, together with New Zealand and The UAE. Stymie_03/04/2023 1 Important information on the background and details about Stymie. Our evidence-based notification system draws on 25 years of leadership experience in education, corporate Australia, sport, clubs and associations and a research base founded in wellbeing and mental health. Stymie is a web app, that delivers encrypted, anonymous and confidential notifications and where possible, uploaded evidence including screenshots to authorised recipients about issues of abuse, harm and unacceptable behaviour. Stymie is focused on awareness, early intervention & prevention. Our purpose is to enhance psychological safety to empower communities everywhere with the self belief that you can speak up Our CEO, Rachel Downie, 2020 QLD Australian of The Year developed Stymie as a way to empathetically connect us with our courage, honesty and conscience, to enable us to speak out about issues we are concerned about for ourselves and others. In doing so Rachel’s ambition is to help us all rewrite our culture to one of care in the communities we interact with every day. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”-FREDERICKDOUGLASS Independent Schools Victoria interviewed Rachel about our work and our purpose. The link to the article is available here. How do we keep in touch ? Students can use the Stymie notification system anytime. We keep in touch with every school, every week of every term. We do this by providing what we call focus posts to all our schools to share with their students. Perhaps you have seen them in newsletters or around your school! ● These focus posts are shared by schools in a variety of ways including in newsletters, school intranet, at school assemblies, and on social media. Many schools print them and post them in high traffic areas around the school. ● They do this because the focus posts are for the students, they are a reminder that Stymie is there for them every single day. A sample of a focus post follows A lot of our schools also host relaunch days each year to refresh the community about Stymie and to introduce Stymie to everyone who is new to the school (teachers included!) We welcome, and would love you to join us on social media too, you can find us on Instagram @stymie_community Thank you for your support. Together, we’re making a difference. #saysomething