About Us
Thank you for taking the time to explore Stymie.
Since 2014, we have delivered over 500 000 notifications, and run face-to-face Stymie Launch Days with more than 700 000 students.
Stymie saves and changes lives every single day.
Stymie is an anonymous harm reporting tool that schools are proactively using to support their students to say something without fear. We work with school communities both nationally and internationally, to connect students with their empathy and conscience so that they can, in an empowered and courageous way, enhance or change the culture of care in their school.
Stymie has been built to support existing student well-being/pastoral care frameworks in schools and was built in consideration of the Australian Student Wellbeing Framework and the recommendations from the Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study.
Rachel Downie
Founder and Director, Australia
25 years ago, I chose to be an educator because I wanted to help young people flourish. I’m also a Mum and with the teams I have worked with in schools, I have championed hard for children who need someone on their side.
A number of years ago, a year 9 boy in my care completed suicide. And whilst – awfully – this was not the first time that this had happened in one of my communities, it was definitely the first time that I felt that it was preventable.
After this boy died, the students came forward with what we believed was life-saving information. They told us he was bullied and excluded, that he was experiencing family violence and that he had been talking about not wanting to be ‘here’ anymore. I know that if we had the details of this harm, we could have helped him, because despite checking in with him every day, he was too frightened to tell us what was happening.
In Australia, 1 in 4 of our kids is bullied at school every day. A third of our principals and student managers suffer through physical violence and bullying at work. In 2018, 3128 Australians died by intentional self-harm, making suicide the biggest killer of our 14-44 year olds.
And supporting the growth of all of this harm, is silence.
Stymie is my way of harnessing help for our kids and providing a solution for school communities. Working together and allowing bystanders to make anonymous notifications, promotes empathy, social responsibility and allows free and unlimited access to young people who are targets of harmful action; they will know that they are not alone.
An important part of the Stymie journey is educating teachers, parents and students about their responsibilities in the cycle of bullying. If you are interested in having me speak with your school community, please contact me here.
Amy Walters
Director, New Zealand
I have an immense passion around the self-care and personal wellbeing of young people.
Being a young person in today’s world should be fun, joyful and exciting, yet our young people are struggling with acceptance, cruelty, exclusion and physical violence – most often at the hands of their own peers.
I have witnessed the impacts that can occur when bullying or harmful behaviours are left to fester, and it is devastating. This stuff shouldn’t be happening. But it is, and it’s heart-breaking!
With a background in Social Work and Psychology and as a mother of 5 watching my own children grow, I have an absolute determination to do more for our kids.
My focus in the past 4 years has been on the creation and delivery of bystander education programmes, which I’ve delivered in schools around the Manawatu District. I’ve collaborated with educators and students through Mayors and community organisations to implement and promote community events and projects that empower our youth, through giving them a voice.
Most importantly to me, I’m told my grass roots ability to connect with young people is genuine and heartfelt – the kids get it and are open to changing cultures in their schools and the teachers are grateful for information and strategies that work.
I’m so excited to be able to incorporate my learning and practice with Stymie and bring that to the schools and students of New Zealand.