About Us

Welcome to Stymie.

In 2015, we created a safe place for young people to #saysomething about harm they may be seeing or experiencing.

Since then, we have delivered over 800,000 notifications and held face-to-face Stymie Workshops with nearly 1 million students.

We believe in a world where young people have access to the help they need. Always. All. Ways.

Stymie has been built to support existing student wellbeing structures in schools and in consideration of the Australian Student Wellbeing Framework, The National Principles for Childsafe Organisations and the recommendations from the Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study.

Rachel Downie

Founder and Director, Australia

30 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.

Several years ago, a year 9 boy in my care died by suicide. And while – 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 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. If we had known the details of this harm, we could have helped him because he was too frightened to tell us what was happening, despite checking in with him every day.

Australian schools have the second-highest rates of bullying in the world. A third of our principals and student managers suffer through physical violence and bullying at work. Suicide is the biggest killer of our teenagers and according to The Australian Child Maltreatment Study released in 2023, almost 40% of Australian kids are subjected to domestic violence, 32% experience physical abuse and 28% are sexually abused.

And supporting the growth of all of this harm, is silence.

Stymie is my way of harnessing help for ‘our’ kids to break the silence and #saysomething. Working together and allowing bystanders to make anonymous notifications promotes empathy and 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 harm. If you are interested in having me speak with your 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.