Jessica Russell is Eli's mom. She first noticed her son was being bullied about a year ago. She says it was so bad that Eli got really bad anxiety and started making things up to avoid going to school. Russell felt helpless because she didn’t know how to fix it.

“It was pretty traumatic for both of us," she said. "Because the things he was saying just, I need a break from them [and] I feel like a ghost. As a parent it breaks your heart because you don’t know what you can do for them to make that feeling for them go away.”

To escape a devastating time, she took matters into her own hands. Russell started reaching out to people around her to start an anti-bullying group.

“We were just elated that this was gonna finally become a reality and that we were gonna be able to, even if it’s just a small change in a couple of children's lives, and his, that we were gonna do this and we were gonna make it happen," Russell said.

There are meetings once a week for children and parents to do activities and discuss their experiences. Torie Hairston is the director of behavioral health at Upstate Family Health Center and leads the group. It allows children to see they’re not alone and helps them understand their feelings.

“Every time you hear feelings everybody usually assumes it’s something negative or you limit your good feelings to happy," said Hairston. "If we use our feelings like we use any other piece of information we learn a lot about ourselves and the world around us.”

Russell says the group discussions are meant to teach the children there are people around them they can trust. The meetings have been going on for more than a month and Eli is feeling much better.

“It’s not okay that this is happening, but it’s okay that you’re feeling this way," she said. "Now he can identify certain emotions that he couldn’t before and he would just get frustrated and lash out and now he’s taking his time to really process it.”

From feeling helpless and heartbroken to flourishing one activity at a time.

“He doesn’t have to have everybody like him," said Russell. "He’s himself and that’s all that matters.”