DURHAM -- Every seven minutes, on average, bullying occurs on any given playground, say statistics collected by a new anti-bullying group.

But bullying is far from the exclusive domain of the school yard, the group maintains.

The recently formed Coalition for Action Against Bullying -- Durham (CAAB-D) launches next week, which is also National Anti-Bullying Week.

The group grew out of a joint effort between Debra Cockerton of the Red Cross and the Durham District School Board's Linda Lowery. The two saw bullying as a societal problem, not just a schoolyard issue and looked into which groups in the area were providing services for people dealing with violence, abuse, bullying and the like. During a needs assessment, stakeholders were asked if there was a requirement for a coalition and the answer was a resounding "Yes," Ms. Cockerton said.

"Everything had been compartmentalized," she said. "But it's abuse. Bullying is peer-to-peer abuse."

CAAB-D pulls all those resources together into one coalition. The group's aim is to deal with bullying "across all ages and stages in the Region of Durham," a news release said.

"Bullying is part of the violence continuum and moves along this continuum as child abuse, bullying, relationship violence, workplace harassment and elder abuse."

The words bullying and abuse are interchangeable and equally serious, said Tammy Rankin, chairwoman of the Durham Elder Abuse Network and a Region of Durham employee.

"As adults we hesitated to use that word," she said. "But call it what it is."

One of the first orders of business for CAAB-D was to define bullying. The group defined it as: "a deliberate, repeated, hostile use of power by one or more individuals, aimed at isolating, intimidating, humiliating and hurting another person or persons across all ages and stages."â?¨ The definition fits, said Jaki MacKinnon, executive director of Bethesda House, a women's and children's shelter in Bowmanville.

"That is bullying, that is woman abuse," Ms. MacKinnon said. "All the women who come to us have been intimidated, humiliated, isolated."

One of the main targets for CAAB-D to get the message to isn't the bully or victim, but rather, the person who witnesses the violation in some way.

"There's no such thing as an innocent bystander," Ms. Rankin said.

Statistics bear that out. A presentation put together by CAAB-D, based on statistics compiled by Debra Pepler, a professor at York University, showed there are bystanders in 85 per cent of bullying episodes. Most of the time, those bystanders either passively watched (53 per cent), or worse, helped the bully (22 per cent). But those statistics also show, when someone does step in, the bullying stops within 10 seconds 57 per cent of the time.

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem," Ms. Cockerton said. "We need to get it across to bystanders that you're empowering the bully by standing by (and) not stepping in."

There's also a real need to begin bullying awareness early on, Ms. MacKinnon said. Bethesda House doesn't get funded for dealing with youth awareness, but they do it anyway.

"We're adamant that prevention is critical," Ms. MacKinnon said. "You're not going to get rid of woman abuse if you don't start with children."

The organization also isn't funded to deal with perpetrators of abuse, but prevention is necessary, she said.

"We have counselling groups for males up to 18 who are in unhealthy relationships or are dealing with domestic violence and are at high risk of becoming perpetrators," Ms. MacKinnon said.

Bullying has to be taken seriously across all ages, Ms. Cockerton said.

She used to work for the school board and dealt with bullying issues. It can have serious repercussions for both victim and bully.

"At (age) 12, we don't say 'bullying,' " she said. "We call it physical assault."

CAAB-D will hold its launch Tuesday, Nov. 18, from 8:30 to 11 a.m. at Westminster United Church, 1850 Rossland Rd. E., Whitby. The event will include guest speakers, a presentation about the coalition and booths set up by the coalition's partner organizations.

This is the first in a six-part series on bullying. Next week: a look at schoolyard bullying.