💻⚡ Kind Online: Digital Upstanders Unite
🎒 An Afterschool Leadership Experience for Ages 12–14
🧠 Real Talk. Smart Moves. Courage Online.
Middle schoolers are more connected than ever—scrolling, sharing, chatting, gaming. And while they’re exploring friendships, identity, and social spaces online… they’re also navigating drama, pressure, and sometimes cyberbullying. Kind Online: Digital Upstanders Unite is a bold, creative afterschool program where students build real-world digital skills, practice speaking up, and lead positive change—online and off. It’s part workshop, part think tank, part creative campaign—and 100% youth-powered.
🧭 How It Works
Each week, students take on a new mission to grow as digital leaders and Upstanders—not bystanders.
We blend:
🧠 Digital Literacy + Ethics
Explore the real impact of posts, group chats, DMs, and more—while learning about online identity, safety, and boundaries.
🎯 Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
Practice empathy, emotion regulation, and assertive communication in digital spaces.
🎨 Media & Messaging
Create posters, skits, short videos, or memes that promote kindness and challenge cruelty online.
💬 Peer Problem Solving
Work through real-life scenarios to build confidence in responding to cyberbullying, exclusion, or rumors.
🌀 Design Thinking for Impact
Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test. Students use creative problem-solving to design their own digital kindness campaigns.
🛠️ Sample Missions
Each session includes an interactive challenge, discussion, and creative project students can do in class or in small teams:
📲 Drama in the DMs
Explore how online conflicts escalate, then rewrite the story with empathy and better choices.
🎭 Text Tone Theater
Use scripts, emojis, and digital “miscommunications” to learn how tone can be misunderstood—and how to clarify.
🛡️ Be the Upstander
Practice how to respond to cyberbullying as a witness or friend—online, in a group chat, or in person.
🎨 Kindness Campaign Studio
Design a poster, slogan, short video, or school-wide initiative that promotes digital kindness and safe spaces.
🧠 Digital Dilemmas
Role-play tricky situations involving gossip, screenshots, oversharing, or peer pressure—and explore your choices.
🗳️ Create a Code
Write and present a group “Digital Code of Conduct” that could be shared with your school or club.
🎉 Upstander Showcase
At the end of the program, students host a Digital Upstander Showcase, where they:
🎤 Share what they’ve learned with peers and families
🎨 Display or perform their projects (videos, skits, posters, zines)
📢 Present a group pledge or digital code for safer, kinder spaces
🎓 Receive leadership recognition + optional service hours
It’s a celebration of confidence, voice, and leadership in the online world.
🎁 Student Take-Home Kits
Each student receives a Kind Online Toolkit to keep the movement going:
📒 Digital Leadership Journal + project reflection pages
🧠 “What Would You Do?” scenario deck for continued practice
🎮 Kindness keyboard stickers + campaign button or badge
📱 Screen-smart challenge tracker for building good digital habits
📜 Certificate of Completion + leadership hours log
🌟 What Students Walk Away With
🛡️ Confidence: How to respond to cyberbullying, exclusion, and digital drama
🧠 Critical Thinking: How to decode messages, navigate tone, and manage screen time
🗣️ Voice: How to stand up for others—and for themselves
🎯 Leadership: Skills they can take into clubs, classrooms, and online communities
✨ Because Middle Schoolers Are Ready to Lead
Kind Online: Digital Upstanders Unite gives students the tools—and the space—to shape their digital world into one that reflects who they really are:
💬 Thoughtful.
🧠 Smart.
💛 Kind.
Their voice matters.
Their choices matter.
Their moment is now.
Let the digital movement begin.