Teachers

WWW.RESPECT4US.ORG.UK

Everyday young women and men in the UK are experiencing and living in fear of violence

The British Crime Survey for 2003/4 reports that 5.4% of men and 2.9% of women interviewed had experienced violence over that period, but that this figure rose to 15.9% of young men and 7.8% of young women aged between 16 and 24. Whilst men are at more risk of certain kinds of violence, women are at greater risk of other kinds. In 2004/2005 in England and Wales 12,867 women and 1,135 men reported being raped. A unique new website called Respect4Us looks at the issues and situations of violence for young people in the UK.

In an on-line neighbourhood, participants go to school, hang out with friends, pop into the newsagents, visit a refuge, go clubbing, get advice, and see the police. Throughout this journey participants are asked questions and learn about sexual bullying, violence, domestic violence, prostitution, support services and centres, trafficking.

Respect4Us is a fantastic on-line activity for the young people you work with to learn more about the issues that surround them. Please encourage them to check it out.

www.respect4us.org.uk

PSHE and Citizenship - two sides of the same coin

When you look at the lesson plans in your Challenging Violence, Changing Lives CD ROM, you will notice that within each year the lessons are divided into sections:

Challenging Our Communities (Citizenship)
Changing Ourselves (PSHE)

Rather than following one strand and not the other, we would strongly recommend that you use both. There is some evidence to suggest that boys learn better through a ‘citizenship-type’ format, which emphasises rights and rules, whilst girls learn better through ‘PSHE-type’ format, where the focus is on skills, communication and relationships. Moreover, gender-based violence is about both the behaviour of the individual in the private world and the structures of society that condone or encourage certain behaviours as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ so that gender-based violence can only be effectively challenged by addressing it in both the public and the private spheres. Citizenship and Campaigns

If your students decide to run a campaign, please let us know. We can provide support in a number of ways:

Sending white ribbons for students to sell
Sending full size copies of some of the posters featured in the campaign tool kit
Putting you in touch with local organisations or schools who are undertaking similar work
Helping provide publicity for the school

And, of course, we would love to put photographs and reports of your events on our website after the 25th November.

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For more info contact hannah@womankind.org.uk

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