Newcastle centre trains young people to deliver abuse awareness sessions

• West End Women and Girls Centre workers train young people to run domestic violence awareness and support programme in education settings

• More than 150 young people have been trained as champions in schools and colleges to deliver the award-winning programme

ACTION

A community-based peer education programme in Newcastle is supporting young women and girls that have experienced or survived domestic abuse.

The West End Women & Girls Centre, which launched the initiative in 2015, says the service helps those aged 11 to 25 affected by domestic abuse either in their personal relationships or within their own families.

As well as delivering one-to-one support sessions for young women, the centre’s peer educator team holds preventative domestic abuse and healthy relationship workshops at schools, colleges and youth groups. These county-wide events are used as an opportunity to recruit and train young domestic violence champions that go on to support their peers and run awareness events in their own settings.

The domestic abuse peer education programme is just one example of the centre’s ongoing work over four decades in responding to the needs of its community. It was established in 1981 to create a safe space for young women in the city following the sexual assault of two girls in a park nearby.

From running just one night a week it has since expanded to offer more than 20 weekly sessions for women and girls to get together and talk, bake, do gardening and cycle.

With the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic last year, the centre launched a massive drive to feed local families in need by making and delivering thousands of portions of soup. However, pandemic lockdowns have contributed to an unprecedented rise in the number of domestic abuse incidents.

Despite the best efforts of its staff, this dramatic increase has impacted on the support services provided by the centre, explains Rochelle Artus, one of its senior domestic violence peer educators.

“It can be quite difficult at times trying to juggle everything and continue to offer the best service we can,” explains Artus.

“This has been especially hard during the pandemic as [domestic abuse] cases have risen significantly and our capacity has been stretched.”

As one of a team of four peer educators, Artus has been on a near 10-year journey with the centre having begun attending its girls youth groups when she was a teenager and later as a volunteer.

She says youth workers trialled a recovery course designed for adults on young girls they had identified as being in controlling relationships at the centre.

“Before long, the penny dropped and we realised that it wasn’t okay what was happening in those relationships,” says Artus. “We were really shocked that no one was talking about it. We certainly didn’t learn about it in school.”

Further visits to schools, youth groups and colleges to deliver domestic abuse awareness workshops uncovered a need for peer support.

“We spoke to the young girls and they told us they didn’t want to speak to teachers or parents. They wanted to speak to young people like us about relationships,” Artus explains. “We were responding to what the community wanted.”

She was trained as a peer educator and also to offer one-to-one support for victims of domestic abuse following in the footsteps of other young women given work through the centre. Everyone employed is connected to the centre in some way, she adds. “That’s what it does – it brings women and girls through the groups and provides opportunities for them.”

Artus explains the centre’s service differs slightly to the support provided by other independent domestic violence advisers (IDVAs) in that instead of a client being transferred to another worker if assessed as medium or standard risk “we will stay with that person”.

“I’ve got one girl that I’ve worked with for over two years now, because she still needs that support,” she says. “We don’t have a rigid amount of time to work with someone. We know that everyone’s lives can go up and down quite regularly, especially when it comes to domestic abuse, so we stay with that woman or girl for as long as we possibly can.”

The support offered also covers legal issues as well as matters relating to housing and benefits. The team provides a flexible service which means its staff can meet young women and girls in places that are accessible to them.

While the centre is supported financially by several different organisations including Newcastle City Council, Sport England and the Virgin Money Foundation, the peer educator roles are funded through the Northumbria Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Artus says the team has around 150 young domestic violence (DV) champions trained up in schools and universities across the region.

A peer educator will usually first hold an assembly at a setting and then a taster session to identify the girls that are interested in becoming a DV champion. Training is normally completed within three weeks enabling these champions to run their own assemblies, offer advice to their peers and make referrals to the centre.

“A lot of the time the girls who put themselves forward for the training are those who have experienced some form of abuse, whether that’s with their parents or within their own relationship,” Artus adds.

The course includes topics on gender equality, self-esteem, warning signs of abuse and the effect of domestic violence on children.

Pre-pandemic, around four to five schools and a university would have received this type of training for young DV champions in a year. “It’s been different this year as we haven’t been able to get into schools as much. But we do return to schools quite regularly and often we’ll train pupils in year 9 or 10 and then the following year we’ll do the next cohort,” explains Artus.

She is keen to highlight the recent addition of five new members to the team that have been brought in as gender equality peer educators. The recruitment of the girls, aged 16 to 18, comes in response to feedback from schools about tackling root causes of domestic abuse. While these particular peer educators will still visit schools, their role will be more campaign focused, says Artus.

“We’ve been talking about a campaign for schools around sexual harassment.
“Our DV champions have been telling us what is happening in their setting and our gender equality peer educators are going to be starting up this work,” she adds.

IMPACT

Over the last few years the centre’s peer educator team has seen its work recognised with a host of local and national awards, most recently winning the Youth Volunteering and Social Action category in the CYP Now Awards 2020. The team won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation Award for gender and equality campaigner of the year in 2016 as well as being awarded the Expert Citizens Insight award in 2018.

Artus says the team uses a “really robust” evaluation process to measure the impact of its work, asking participants to regularly fill in feedback forms at the end of each training session. Monthly networking meetings are also held with the DV champions to discuss any issues and to support them in their campaigns around domestic abuse.

She says the champions are often quite well supported by their own setting which also contributes to their success.

“Some schools need a bit of a gentle nudge from us but others are proactive which is great,” explains Artus. “We really need that input to push the programme and help support the girls – we’re in quite a large area so we can’t be there all of the time.”

Read more in CYP Now's Sexual Health and Relationships Special Report