Blackpool man's "one man mission" to help end bullying in the UK

A man from Lancashire is aiming to help eradicate bullying in the UK with his free anti bullying book and training courses which get to the "root of the problem", giving users a "true understanding of the con-trick behind bullying, and how to overcome and deal with it."

Blackpool based Norry Ascroft, a 58 year old employability mentor at Blackpool FC Community Trust, is the man behind 'Youth Potential', whose goal is to give out 50,000 free online copies of his book 'The Truth About Bullying' to schools and parents across the UK, which can be downloaded now on his website.

Norry also wants to provide every school in the country with a free Teacher Training Programme, that will make a direct difference with bullying and mental health issues, whilst Youth Potential have even developed a programme aimed at parents, which costs only £10 for unlimited access and can be purchased here.

Norry, who used to be an executive coach professionally, said: "My background is actually as an entertainer but my passion is the bullying problem. A long story short, I was in Chicago doing a year-long corporate training course when I read a story, the third story in as many weeks, of a teenage girl who taken her own life because of cyber bullying, and it just hit me as a parent because my daughter at the time was only four, so I started doing research on why this was happening so much, because of the training I've had in human behaviour, and I learnt bullying is a con-trick.

"So I ended up putting a system together, which is in my book and programmes, where it goes deeper, and explains the truth about bullying, why people do it, and help others understand what's behind it, and once I’ve shown them how the con-trick is done, it’s like a magic trick, they can’t be tricked again. So that's why I want to share the information with as many parents and teachers as I can because then they can drip feed it into the children. It has to be repetitive learning, like learning any skill, but when it's done, it's done, it's in your subconscious."

Norry has spent the last 10 years providing one to one sessions with parents and going into schools to train teachers, but now hopes to make a wider difference with the distribution of his online book and training programmes.

He explained: "I only have a certain amount of time, and I could never get around the 30,000 schools in the UK. In Lancashire, there’s 1600, so I physically can't get around them all doing live presentations, although I'd love to if I had the funding, but the easiest way is online, which is why I put this programme together."

Youth Potential is self-funded by Norry, with the help of donations, and sponsors, including Blackpool FC Community Trust, who in Anti-Bullying week last November helped Norry distribute 12,000 leaflets to all Blackpool primary schools which gave parents and teachers the QR code to download free digital copies of his book.

'The Truth About Bullying' is only 60 pages long, taking an hour to read, and Norry believes it tackles the bullying problem in a "unique" way, which is useful not only for bullying in schools, but any adults experiencing racism, homophobia or a controlling relationship.

Norry added: "There's organisations that have been going for 20 years, saying they're going to stop bullying, and they haven’t, the information they're giving is true, but it's not getting to the root problem- why people do it.

"And the outcome is getting worse with bullying, the coercion of sex in schools, the knife trend, the grooming of drug county lines, and it's all manipulation, it's a con-trick, and that's why I want to expose it, because bullying is still the number one for mental health problems with youth and all these other organisations can't cope so we have to change the response.

"So that's why I got passionate, we don't need a big organisation, we'll do direct, take responsibility, parents and teachers can learn this, you don't have to be a psychologist, it's very simple, and once you've got it and you can use it for anything."

Anyone can get a free digital copy of the book from the Youth Potential website and the physical paperback version is also available on Amazon bookstore.