Content Warning – this article discusses sexual harassment, abuse and gender violence
Change Lab’s Inclusion and Diversity Group are advocating for safer spaces and better sex education in schools across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.
The group held an event on 26th April at Coffee Revolution to discuss sexual harassment in educational settings and promote the support that is avaliable.
Change Lab is a social action programme founded by Sheffield Students’ Union that encourages students to get involved in social change through campaigning and raising awareness.
This year, the Diversity and Inclusion group chose to focus their campaigning on tackling sexual harassment in secondary schools, a cause that was inspired by the work they have been doing with Sheffield-based charity Chula.
Chula is an empowerment organisation that aims to support young women to reach their full potential, and supported the group’s project about sexual harassment.
Project Leader, Megan Ball, said: “Chula is really about female empowerment, but it meant for us we had this massive topic we could choose from.
“It took us quite a few months to decide why sexual harassment. It all started with the research and we thought this was one of the most problematic areas. We chose secondary [schools] because from a university background you see it a lot more.”
The event, hosted at the Students’ Union, aimed to bring together like-minded individuals to discuss the topic over free refreshments and interactive segments.
The group held a panel where they discussed their research and presented the statistics that they had uncovered during their project.
The research on secondary schools was particularly striking; the group spoke about how the national curriculum is not sufficient enough to address these issues and that only 19% of teachers feel confident enough to deliver this content.
The group also discussed the factors affecting sexual harassment in schools, and proposed that social media has a negative effect on the behaviour of boys at school and that institutions are reluctant to take responsibility for rape culture.
Megan said: “If you do want to get involved in campaigning and activism, it’s an amazing place to start. We’ve been doing this since October last year so it’s been a real learning curve.”
During the event, the audience was invited to contribute to the session by offering answers to questions and through adding notes to the ‘Tree of Change’, a display that asked participants what kind of change they would like to see in secondary schools.
The second half of the event saw two representatives, Lauren and Jasmine, from Young Abuse Support, an organisation that seeks to help young people get help and works with schools and institutions to inform people about young partner domestic abuse.
As part of their efforts, the organisation has produced a comprehensive training manual that they have freely distributed to schools, including trauma-informed guidance to help staff improve their safeguarding practices and help young people who may be in these situations.
The group raised awareness of the problem whilst promoting Change Lab and holding a bake sale for Sheffield RAG.
Their next steps are to continue their social action by sharing their research and information to different groups and institutions, including the Mayor, who is interested in delivering their campaign to youth groups across the city.