Body Kind Education

Program description

Body Kind Education provides workshops and resources for students in years 5–12, school staff, and parents. Sessions focus on:

• risk factors underlying negative body image and eating disorders
• promoting healthy behaviours towards the body, eating and physical activity
• building resilience
• reducing stigma and promoting mental health literacy
• encouraging help seeking and early identification of eating disorders.

Intended outcomes

• Increased student awareness of the influences on body image and how to manage appearance pressure.
• Increased student awareness of help-seeking strategies.
• Increased student awareness of support services.
• Improved staff awareness and prevention of body image issues or eating disorders.
• Stronger staff skills in early identification and support of body and/or eating concerns.

Program details

Implementation considerations

• Target population: Students in Years 5–12, school staff supporting them and their parents/carers.
• Program adaptability: While the sessions are designed for universal prevention, they can be tailored to specific groups as required. However, new or highly tailored content cannot be created.
• Staffing: No backfill is required when workshops are booked as part of in-service training or as a twilight session. The Menu provider and its personnel must not be alone with any school student or group of school students in the classroom or in any other place at the school’s premises without another educator, teacher or teacher’s aide present at all times.
• Training requirements: The time commitment is 3 hours for students, 3.5 hours for teacher PD and 1.5 hours for the parent seminar. Schools are required to provide a laptop, AV facilities and an appropriate space.
• Factors to consider: A minimum group size of 10 and ideally no greater than 200 students is required for student presentations. A minimum group size of 6 and ideally no greater than 40 staff is required for professional workshops. A minimum group size of 10 is required for parent seminars, but there is no upper capacity limit. Schools using the program can contact the Butterfly Foundation for free ongoing advice and support at via email. The Butterfly Foundation’s free national Helpline is also available for students, staff, and parents/guardians.
• Australian context: The program has been developed and applied in Australia.

Cost

Minimum cost

From under $1,000

Detailed cost

The cost for the Body Kind Education Services items are as follows:

• one x 50-min–one-hour student presentation for 100–200 participants:
  • for years 5–6, delivered at the school for $462 (incl. GST)
  • for years 5–6, delivered online for $346.50 (incl. GST)
  • for years 7–12, delivered at the school for $693 (incl. GST)
  • for years 7–12, delivered online for $577.50 (incl. GST).
• Body Image Educator Training staff professional development workshop for 6 to 25 participants:
  • 3.5 hours delivered at the school for $2,310 (incl. GST)
  • 2 hours delivered online for $1,260 (incl. GST).
• Understanding Eating Disorders in Young People staff professional development workshop for 6 to 25 participants:
  • 2 hours delivered at the school for $1,661 (incl. GST)
  • 2 hours delivered online for $1,260 (incl. GST)
• Creating a Body Kind School Culture workshop:
  • one hour staff professional development delivered at the school or online (no minimum or maximum participants) for $1,039.50 (incl. GST)
  • 1.5 hour parent seminar delivered at the school or online (no minimum or maximum participants) for $858 (incl. GST).

The cost for these workshops above include:

• delivery by one x facilitator
• access to web portals to Body Kind Schools and Body Kind Families
• access to digital handbooks and handouts for each participant
• curriculum resources
• letter for parents
• youth-friendly session overviews and pre- and post-session activities for classes
• ongoing advice and support from the Butterfly Foundation
• National Helpline for students and staff.

The following additional costs may be charged:

• travel costs for onsite delivery at schools more than 40 km from Melbourne CBD at $57.20 per hr (incl. GST)
• reimbursement of accommodation costs for onsite delivery at schools more than 40 km from Melbourne CBD
• surcharge for groups over 25 participants completing either Body Image Educator Training or Understanding Eating Disorders in Young People staff workshops, at $55 (incl. GST) per participant.

The following discounts are available to schools:

• $100 discount (excl. GST) on all subsequent sessions delivered on the same day (with minimal downtime in between)
• reduction of cost on workshop Creating a Body Kind School Culture for registered Body Bright schools at $830.50 (incl. GST).