Director’s Blog – Lisa Charlotte Davis
In the test phase, our fab facilitators Ashlea Sanderson Sarah Stamp and Victoria Downes delivered the programme to 202 young people of secondary school age (predominantly in Year 9) across 2 secondary schools, 1 alternative education setting & 2 youth groups.
Participating young people included those with:
🩵 known lived experience of domestic abuse
🩵 SEMH needs
🩵 SEND need
🩵 high levels of deprivation
We developed 3 variants of the programme, delivering:
🎬 the full programme over a period of weeks
🎬 a slightly shorter programme as a dropdown day
🎬 just a film showing followed by a Q&A
Whichever way we delivered the programme, there was a positive impact on the young people, but the most significant impact was for those who did the programme over a period of weeks. This was mirrored in the educators’ observations:
“And I think on the fourth session, that’s when it hit home, and it’s like, oh goodness me, this is me, right – recognising themselves as the red flag.”
Evidence from the programme shows significant positive impacts on the young people:
💬 “I would be able to spot reg flags more now”
💬 “I feel like it has managed to give me a bit more of an understanding of it. I think I can [better recognise healthy and unhealthy signs].”
💬 “…it would help the other people pick up tiny signs if their friends were in a relationship and it was unhealthy, they’d be able to give advice, give help…”
💬 “This has helped, particularly the young men…to really consider what it means to be a man.”
💬 “It gives them language to feeling already it wasn’t right.”
💬 “I would tell the teacher if I was worried… I would support my friend and make sure she wasn’t alone.”
This extract from the toolkit shows an example of a young person’s depictions of “insta versus reality”, a creative exercise we used to encourage them to reflect on the impression of Amy’s relationship her friends might have from her positive-seeming social media posts and the way in which this contrasts with the reality of her experience of a controlling relationship.
We’re so pleased to have welcomed a fab new cohort this week of Secondary school teachers, youth workers and other educational professionals who’ll be using the A is for Amy programme with their young people over the next term 🤩
