T- Teach Skills to Prevent Sexual Violence.

Strengths

Far from the Heart, an interactive local theatre production that explores sexual violence in teen dating relationships was chosen as the top identified program to teach skills to prevention SV.

There is broad agreement that teaching skills to prevent SV needs to start early, with almost half of respondents choosing to start at the elementary school age. Many participants want teaching to start early and be ongoing at every age and stage of life ‘we need to talk about preventing SV our entire lives in different ways.’ ‘Young boys need more education in a compassionate way due to our current culture.’
Consent is something that can be role modeled at an early age – “I have started talking to my toddlers. When someone says no, that needs to be respected, even when they are little things…”

‘We need to start having open conversations right away and always. This should not start at a specific age. It needs to be the background eveAryone hears all the time. Otherwise the background they are hearing is – it was her fault.” (survey participant)

Weaknesses

Although respondents said that parents and teachers are teaching SV prevention skills, over half rated the skill based teaching in the poor (34%) or fair (25%) range. Only 2% said the teaching was excellent.

Respondents believe the top sources of information about sex and intimate relationships for children and youth are: Friends and peers (81%), Media (TV, radio, movies, music videos, video games (66%) and Social Media (sexting, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) 65%. “Children are frequently given bad information”

‘The issue is that not everyone feels comfortable teaching sexual violence prevention, so important areas of the conversation may be overlooked.’(survey participant)

Discussion

There are a number of skills-based training approaches that are effective in addressing SV perpetration, victimization or risk factors for SV including: teaching healthy, safe dating skills; promoting health sexuality through comprehensive sex education; training for women to reduce the risk for victimization; and changing the way children and adolescents think and feel about violence.
In Grey Bruce most survey participants stated that parents and teachers are teaching children and youth skills to prevent SV, but over half rated these skills-based approaches in the poor or fair range. There were no reports of specific skills based training on safe dating, or to reduce risk of victimization.

‘The issue is that not everyone feels comfortable teaching sexual violence prevention, so important areas of the conversation may be overlooked.’(survey participant)

It appears that survey participants believe that most children and youth get information about sex and intimate relationships from friends, peers, social media and media in Grey Bruce – which may make them more vulnerable to sexual violence.

The findings from the survey show a great need for evidence and skills based based training to prevent sexual violence, and for multi faceted approaches to provide children and youth with good information about healthy sexuality and intimate relationships. There is broad agreement that this training needs to start early and continue across the lifespan.

Sheatre uses interactive theatre and film to start conversations about dating abuse, sexual assault, and healthy relationships with ‘Far From the Heart’. Visit their website for more info.
www.sheatre.com

Creating spaces where young people can talk about sex, sexuality, gender, and relationships helps them to think about violence prevention. In fact, schools are required by law to facilitate a GSA if students request one.
Read the law here: www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/safeschools/acceptSafe.html