School workshops evidence changing attitudes towards violence
A recently study by the Centre for Public Health (CPH) at Liverpool John Moores University found that Stand Against Violence (SAV) workshops significantly reduce the likelihood of young people engaging in violence as a means to conflict resolution.
Stand Against Violence is a violence prevention charity set up in 2005 following the tragic death of Lloyd Fouracre in Taunton, Somerset. Founded by his brother Adam, that charity works through the education of young people to steer people away from violence.
The CPH are leaders in the field of violence research and offered free support to evaluate SAV’s workshops. Adam Fouracre, CEO and founder of Stand Against Violence said ‘we were thrilled that the CPH were offering such valuable support. They were giving us the opportunity to prove to everyone that our workshops were effective and a benefit to young people.’
The evaluation of SAV’s work within secondary schools has provided evidence of the design and delivery of a successful workshop in changing young people’s perspectives on violence and alcohol consumption. By sharing the real-life story of a murder, young people across the South West of England have been given the opportunity to reflect on the reality and consequences of violence. In terms of the evaluation’s quantitative evidence, findings indicate that the workshop achieves the charity’s aim in improving young people’s knowledge and skills for avoiding potentially violent situations. More precisely this improved attitude has been observed immediately after the workshop and is sustained for at least six to eight weeks. The evidence indicates that the workshop is both relevant to and effective at improving pupils’ knowledge and skills in conflict resolution and offers a promising violence prevention approach for young people.
The 60 minute workshop looks at the consequences of violence. It is made up of an 11 minute film which tells the story of the murder of Lloyd Fouracre and the impact it had on his family, friends and community, group work and a questions and answers session. The group work involves a perspective taking activity where pupils split into small groups of 5-6 people to discuss the feeling of those involved in the film. During this activity young people are asked to put themselves in the shoes of those involved ranging from the victims family, the offender and their family to the professionals that were there on the night.
In the last year over 9,000 young people have experienced the impact of the workshop across the UK. The workshops help schools to not only safeguard their pupils but also meets the key objectives of the PSHE curriculum. All of SAV’s workshops are delivered by trained and experienced teachers who are experienced in tackling sensitive issues. Information is provided to all schools about where pupils can gain support if needed following the workshops and SAV is always happy to do follow up work with schools.
One teacher who witnessed SAV’s workshop said “I really think it’s a really valuable thing, just the amount of emotion that it stirs up in the kids, I think it’s really good, because too often these days I think you know, kids can watch a lot of TV, news and they can become totally immune to it and forget that all these people are somebody’s brother or child or anything, whereas this I think really brings it home to them, that you know, here’s a lad, normal lad, he’s got a brother, a mum, a gran, I think it’s really important”. Another said that “It will make them think a lot more about the sort of person they are, the kind of behaviour they have, and maybe as well if there are any sort of difficult situations like at home or with people that they know, they understand a little bit more about what they can do, where they can go to if there’s anything that they’re concerned about“.
Adam said ‘the responses from teachers and pupils are outstanding. I have had several young people come up to me in the streets who have said SAV’s input in their school, in their opinion directly resulted in reductions and even the eradication of violence and bullying in their year groups. This is inspiring to hear and we hope that our work can continue.’
SAV uses funding from donors and fundraisers to offer a free hour workshop to all new schools. They hope that this will provide the opportunity for schools to try the workshop and see for themselves the benefit it brings. If your school would like to take advantage of this or bring SAV in to work with your young people please contact SAV or register your interest using the form below.
To watch Lloyd’s story or to find out more information on SAV’s workshops please visit www.standagainstviolence.co.uk
You can view the CPH evaluation on the home page of the CPH www.cph.org.uk