— 2023 Unity Award Recipient —
Peer Initiative — Leaders of Tomorrow (PILOT)
Lake Charles, LA
Peer Initiative - Leaders of Tomorrow (PILOT) is a student group at Sam Houston High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana, whose main mission is to ignite major social reform while utilizing the power of young minds in areas like bullying and mental health. Much of their advocacy work for bullying occurs during the month of October as they paint local elementary school windows with bullying prevention messages, work the local police office's bullying prevention walk, and host a bullying prevention theme during one of Sam Houston's football games. Within the PILOT organization, willing juniors and seniors apply and train to become peer mentors. Part of their training includes not only how to intervene in a bullying situation but how to offer emotional assistance to the target through confidential, one-on-one peer sessions. PILOT advertises these sessions around the school in addition to the other kindness-oriented messaging posters with which they color the walls of Sam Houston.
Thanks to the dedication of the Peer Initiative – Leaders of Tomorrow group, many incidences of bullying have been resolved and targets supported. Nominated by Lyndsey Young
Quotes from 2023 Unity Award Recipient
Why are you personally passionate about addressing bullying and promoting inclusion?
We are passionate about addressing bullying and promoting inclusion because it is awful to be the individual who is excluded from others and looked down upon. Respecting others and treating them with kindness can easily brighten their day and make them feel loved by others. Feeling unappreciated can lead to self-deprecating thoughts which ultimately hurt one's own image of themself in the long run. I just believe that promoting overall kindness is the perfect way to make our peers feel better about themselves because it costs nothing and can be done at any time and place.
Why is it important to create a world without bullying?
It is important to create a world without bullying because bullying can generate suicidal thoughts in a victim of bullying. Losing the life of an innocent soul due to the harshness of others is completely unfair to everyone. No one should ever feel less than their worth just because of others' brash words and actions that are most likely false.
Drive Out Bullying
Give Hope to Those Who Have Lost It
