Some of the Bay of Plenty's most popular rugby players are tackling bullying in schools through a new police and Chiefs rugby franchise initiative: the Kia Kaha anti-bullying programme.

Constable Lance Smith says the partnership in which Lelia Masaga and Mike Delany are involved came about after contact from Chiefs' management.

Senior Constable Steve Ryburn with Tana Umanga and Lelia Masaga.

'The Chiefs were looking for a worthwhile community based project to become involved with which would have a positive impact at the grass roots level and what better place to start than with kids in schools?” says Lance.

'Kia Kaha is a whole school programme that doesn't just target students, but involves everyone from the kids, teachers and even the boards of trustees, working to establish safe emotional and physical environments in our schools.”

Lance says with buy-in from the Chiefs the programme now had enhanced mana and credibility with children who might initially be nervous about discussing issues around bullying.

Tracey McMaster with Mike Delany, Hayden Triggs and Isaac Ross.

The person driving the Chiefs' involvement, professional development manager Judy Clement, says from the player's perspective they are passionate about the opportunity to support children and particularly youth at risk and she knows this will be extremely beneficial to the rugby players as well.

'Kia Kaha's anti-bullying message means a lot to the Chiefs team members and they are proud to work with the police in this area and look forward to joining them in visits to local schools to assist in delivering the programme.

'The team will be involved throughout the Chief's Super Rugby campaign and split into eight groups; each group will attach themselves to a youth education officer and visit two schools per month.”

Lance says while the players' involvement would bring huge benefits in promoting the programme it wasn't without risks and to mitigate these the players had undergone training prior to the visits beginning.

'One of the key things we all needed to appreciate is that because of who they are, the kids will automatically warm to them and that has some risks in that how players react to matters that may be disclosed to them and how do they deal with issues that may make them uncomfortable?

'To address these issues, seminars were run by police with the players addressing how to deal with situations where children disclose matters and how the players should deal with them? Like any group of young men there was a lot of joking around at the start, but very quickly they appreciated just how serious an issue this is which is a credit to them.”

Chiefs player, Mount Maunganui's Mike Delany, says the programme is on an issue close to home for many of the Chiefs.

'We don't realise as players bullying is occurring in our schools and many of our players have kids of their own so they can really relate to this issue so we're right behind helping to make schools a happy and safe environment to be in.”