Interview with the Megan Meier Foundation

Can you tell me a bit about the Megan Meier Foundation?

In December of 2007, Tina Meier founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit Megan Meier Foundation named after her 13 year old daughter, Megan Taylor Meier. Just prior to her 14th Birthday, Megan attempted to take her own life. All efforts were made to save her, unfortunately she passed on October 17, 2006. The day before her passing, Megan and Josh Evans, a MySpace friend at the time, had an argument that escalated into horrible, hurtful messages like, "The world would be a better place without you". Six weeks after Megan's suicide, Tina Meier was informed that Josh Evans was a fictitious creation of an adult neighbor.

Cyber-bullying is rising at such a fast rate and people often forget that the effect it has on victims can be just as damaging as any other form of bullying. What is the main aim for your foundation?

The Megan Meier Foundation currently offers community resources, scholarships, student workshops, and speaking engagements by Tina Meier for students, parents, educator, and other professionals. The mission of the Megan Meier Foundation is to “create awareness, education and promote positive change to children, parents and educators in response to the issues surrounding bullying and cyber-bullying in our children’s daily environment.”

How did you grow and expand your audience?

Tina's initial presentations were to student groups, however she quickly became aware that bullying prevention needed to be tackled on all levels including not only students, but also school officials and educators, parents, and whole communities. Tina now offers presentations to various groups in the hopes that providing bullying prevention information and techniques will lessen all forms of bullying in communities around the US.

How did you reach your audience? 

The Megan Meier Foundation reaches students, educators, and parents through social media and other national and international media platforms including television and radio. We also directly interact with these groups at presentations and workshop, and even at our annual fundraising events: Celebration for Change and Golf Tournament.

What has your foundation managed to achieve?

As of June 2014, the Foundation has managed to reach 209,000 students, educators, and parents through our programs. I've attached our Fact Sheet that includes more information about the work we have accomplished since 2008.

That is an incredible number! I will attach the fact sheet below! Do you have any advice for anyone going through bullying/cyber bullying right now?

One immediate piece of advice for youth going through bullying or cyber-bullying would be, tell a trusted adult. Sometimes kids feel like they can handle it or that it's too embarrassing to tell, but we have found that the best approach to end such situations is by making adults aware. A trusted adult doesn't necessarily have to be mom or dad, but anyone you feel like will listen and help address the situation like a teacher, youth group leader, coach, mentor, sibling, etc. It may also take a few tries to get their attention, but someone will help.

I would just like to say thank you so much to the Megan Meier Foundation for this interview, your great efforts are making huge differences worldwide!

If you would like to check out the Megan Meier Foundation's website, you can here: http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/ 

If you would like to contact the Megan Meier Foundation, you can visit their Twitter account here: @MeganMeierFndn

Thank you all for reading!

Chloe x