Ariel Trust
At a recent forum to discuss Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Ariel Trust began collaborating with St Julies High School, in order to respond to a call to action that had been issued by Merseyside Police.
A Senior officer said, “One of the biggest problems that we face is children sharing indecent images with one another, peer-to-peer sharing. This is a crime and when it is reported to us, a police officer has to knock on the door of a family. When families find out that their child has been involved in a crime, the family often experiences trauma. This is not the impact that we want to create, and we need to consider alternative, preventative approaches.”
Ariel Trust and a group of young women from St Julies began a co-creation process to develop a film that could be used as part of an ‘alternative, preventative approach’. The young women stepped into the roles of the victim, the perpetrator and the bystander and began to explore how these characters would behave. Working with a theatre practitioner from Ariel Trust they put together a drama and invited their parents along.
Parents did not get to sit and watch their children perform; they were invited to take part in an interactive workshop. The young people set the scene, acting out a scenario in which 2 young people got into a relationship and began sharing indecent images with one another. As a crisis began to occur and one of the characters turns to her parents and asks for help. At this point real parents were asked to step into role and think about how they would respond in a situation like this.
The ideas that came out of this co-creation process are now being made into a film. Staring young women from St Julies this film will be at the heart of a programmes. The co-creation process is not yet complete; however, Ariel Trust is currently looking to engage Merseyside schools who would like to take part in the testing of this new programme of learning.
Working in partnership with teachers to test and develop programmes of violence reduction education is the best way to make sure these fit within the national curriculum. The government’s guidance on Sex and Relationship Education state that young people will know:
• How to report concerns or abuse and have the vocabulary and confidence needed to do so
• How to recognise who to trust and who not to trust, how to judge when a friendship is making them feel unhappy or uncomfortable and how to manage these situations.
• How to ask for advice or help for themselves or others, and to keep trying until they are heard
If you or your colleagues are responsible for delivering these outcomes for pupils in year 7 and would like to be part of the testing process please contact Paul Ainsworth at Ariel Trust: paul@arieltrust.com