4: Recruiting children and young people

Recruitment into a participatory project can take time as there are many aspects to consider.  

In establishing a project, it is likely that you will need to introduce the project to multiple people including funders, advisory group members, colleagues, partners/ gatekeepers, parents and carers, community members, and children and young people.

It's important at the outset to think about:

  • how the project will be communicated to all these different people
  • who will be invited to take part, and
  • what barriers to participation may exist.

When thinking about introducing projects and opportunities to children and young people, it is important to think about the language that will be used.

Due to the taboos and sensitivities around the sexual violence of children and young people, language is of particular significance.

For victims and survivors, the language used to talk about sexual violence is personal and emotive. Words can hold different meanings and associations for different people.

Where possible, it can be helpful to have conversations with young people in the respective project locations to understand their views and preferences around language.   

Practice example: Discussing language during the Our Voices Consultations

Our original Our Voices project involved consultations with children and young people in Albania, Bulgaria and the UK.

These consultations included space to discuss what language would be helpful when discussing sexual violence and highlighted the importance of thinking carefully about this. 

For example, some young people (in the UK in particular) felt that ‘sexual violence’ was too difficult to say and sounded ‘too harsh’, but the group struggled to come up with alternative phrasing: 

  • ‘Change words- sexual violence harsh – difficult to say’
  •  ‘Sexual violence is what it is so you’ve got to use that language’ , ‘there is no point in sugar coating it’
  • ‘Survivors better than victims’
  • ‘Sexual abuse? Abuse sounds worse! Violence - more aggressive. ‘sexual happening’? not specific enough’.

Read more about the consultations in ‘We have personal experience to share, it makes it real’: Young people's views on their role in sexual violence prevention efforts.

Taking the time to explore and consider language is not only important in the initial recruitment phase, but should be considered throughout the project. Using particular language for a project may also have implications if young people go on to be involved in advocacy and dissemination elements (see more in section 6: doing).

Sexual violence is highly stigmatised and children and young people may feel reluctant to be associated with this topic or may face opposition from their family, friends or community in relation to participating in sexual violence research. This was voiced by young people who took part in our original Our Voices consultations:

‘A girl can be stigmatised if she gets involved in an information session about sexual violence’ (Youth Advisor from Albania).

 ‘Saying [you're] a volunteer is good but when it's a sexual topic it can be seen in a negative way’ (Youth Advisor from England).

Practice example: The language used in the LEAP project

In our ‘LEAP Against Sexual Violence’ project which took place across Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Romania and the UK, we chose to use the phrasing ‘children and young people affected by sexual violence’.

While ‘affected by’ could be interpreted as having directly experienced sexual violence, we explained that for the purpose of this project, ‘affected by sexual violence’ can also mean:  

  • Knowing friends or family members who have experienced or perpetrated sexual violence
  • Witnessing sexual violence.
  • Living in communities with high rates of sexual violence.
We chose to use this broader definition to reduce potential stigma for those young people who wanted to engage in the project but who may have been reluctant to because of the implications.

Recruitment is often not straightforward in participatory projects with children and young people who have experienced sexual violence. In the Our Voices programme barriers to recuitment have included:

  • Establishing trust with gatekeepers
  • Hesitancy from practitioners and other professionals to invite children and young people to take part
  • Limitations on what can be communicated through written information

There are often different barriers to young people’s participation. 

  • Fears: young people fearing that people will find out they took part in a project about sexual violence
  • Timing: young people having exams or other things happening in their personal life
  • Childcare: young people having their own children and not being able to arrange childcare
  • Content: Finding the content of the project emotionally too difficult

This means that often researchers and practitioners need to be sensitive and creative in how they identify potential groups of children and young people and may need to test out different strategies for approaching recruitment.

Practice example: Testing out different strategies to recruit young people into projects  

In the ‘LEAP Against Sexual Violence’ project , our partners were all very different, some were direct service providers so had easy access to young people, others had to develop partnerships with organisations working directly with young people. 

Partners tried different methods to recruit young people into the project.

In the Netherlands, our partner tried to recruit young people by asking them to write a motivational letter about why they wanted to take part in the project. They also organised a drop-in information session at a residential unit for young people (but hardly anyone showed up). In the end a member of staff visited different projects to chat to young people about the project directly.

In Romania, the coordinator from the project had an existing database of youth who were interested in doing more work with the organisation and therefore these young people were approached about the project.

In the UK and Bulgaria, as both services were already working directly with young people, they had cohorts of young people who were either already in an established ‘participation group’ or had existing relationships with young people (who in some cases were already trained and volunteering with the organisation).

The variety of approaches taken in this one project illustrates that different strategies may work for different partners.

 

A core component related to working collaboratively with children and young people to explore the topic of childhood sexual violence is around establishing trust.

Building trust with children and young people from the outset involves providing clear information about:

  • the project and its purpose, risks and benefits
  • how any data collected will be used, strored and deleted
  • informed and ongoing consent
  • confidentiality
  • what their participation entails
  • where they have choice and control in the process

This information may be shared in a simple document (see example information sheet). However, it is also helpful to think about how to make such information age-appropriate and trauma-informed.

Practice example: Using an animation to share information about a project

In the Our Voices III project we used animation to introduce our research project to young people. 

In the animation we introduced the research team and Centre leading the study. The animation shared background information about the study and what we would be asking young people to do as part of the research. We introduced the research method, who the participants would be, the recruitment criteria and how to find out more about the study and get involved.

In developing the animation, the research team also worked with the Centre’s Young Researchers’ Advisory Panel (YRAP) who provided input and suggestions for improving the script and visuals.

 Image taken from the animation.

Negotiating children and young people’s informed consent ethically and meaningfully is critical in this process.

Developing a consent form that explains exactly what you are asking for consent for from young people is important (see example consent form). However, it is also important to explain this so that it becomes clear and meaningful.

Don’t just give a young person a piece of paper’

Often in information sheets and consent forms we use certain concepts, but as our research has show, it's important to explain what these things mean in practice and to give examples of what might happen in different scenarios.

Thinking about confidentiality, thinking about sort of not just saying the word, but unpicking it, what does it mean? What will happen? What does it mean to break that, what will happen?'

Consent is often sought at the start of the project, however consent should be approached as an ongoing exercise. Consent should be revisited throughout the project by checking in with children and young people to see if they are happy continuing to participate and to provide choice for them to witdrawn consent or 'opt out' of different activities and sessions.

Depending on the age of the young person and the national legal framework, it may also be necessary to seek parental consent or consent from a guardian.

Often projects that are designed to support young people to inform and influence take the shape of collective participation through group work.

Through the Our Voices programme of research and practice, we have documented our learning around the ‘group’ and have explored the benefits and challenges of group work pertaining to the issue of sexual violence. This learning suggests that group work can potentially lead to a range of benefits for young people who have experienced childhood sexual violence. Benefits relate to:

  • Understanding their experiences of abuse (including their responses and emotions connected to the abuse and; childhood sexual violence as a social and political issue)
  • Supporting relationships, trust and peer support
  • Promoting confidence, knowledge and skills
  • Providing opportunities to demonstrate strengths
  • Healing and recovery

A group of young people sitting in a circle all untangling one of the young person's problems

Image taken from: Seeing things from both sides: A comic to help young people and professionals understand each other’s views about young survivors’ participation in efforts to address child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Our learning also points to the potential challenges and difficulties that may be experienced by children and young people, and group facilitators, in working in groups on the topic of sexual violence.

A key message from this work is around the importance of the facilitator or participation worker possessing the training, skills and support necessary to groups safely. 

Read more about group work in our briefing paper Group work as a mechanism for the collective participation of children and young people with lived experience of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

It is important to consider the makeup and dynamics of 'the group'. There are a range of things to think through in relation to this and there may be distinct considerations for each project, but it is important to think about things like: 

  • whether a young person is known to have experienced sexual violence or is engaged in a service as they are seen by services to be ‘at risk’ of sexual violence (or other forms of harm);
  • whether single-sex or mixed-sex groups are appropriate;
  • whether there are any communication preferences that need to be accommodated;
  • whether there are any known risks attached to bringing certain individuals together that would undermine their participation and feelings of safety.

It is important to consider the diversity of the group of children and young people you are engaging and be mindful of whose voices are included (or not) in the work.

If accessing children and young people from a service, it may be that certain groups of survivors are underrepresented within that service, e.g. those from ethnic minorities, younger children and boys and young men.

In our work, there is often a question surrounding how to know when a child or young person may be ‘ready’ or in the ‘right space’ to engage in a participatory project on childhood sexual violence.

Through our research and practice we have initiated conversations about ‘readiness’ with professionals and young people to help us better understand what this might look like for different people. Professionals often underscore the importance of recognising that:

  • everyone is an individual (there are not universal standards to assessing ‘readiness’)
  • young people may need to be at a ‘certain stage’ in their recovery (whilst understanding that recovery is not linear and that having a voice and choice are key parts of a trauma-informed approach to recovery)
  • young people need to be emotionally and physically safe
  • young people may benefit from having some ‘distance from’ their experiences
  • young people need to be able to listen to others’ experiences of harm and injustice (if working in a group setting or working as a faciliator, mentor or peer researcher).

Our research also points to the fact that determining ‘readiness’:

  • does not need to be overly formal and bureaucratic and
  • should involve young people so they can understand the risks and benefits involved and consider how ‘ready’ they may feel to take part.

Our research also found that it was important for young people to be able to ‘test out’ engaging in different activities if they have support in place and  know that they can withdraw if they find it too difficult.

Learn more about what we have learnt about 'readiness' in:

Comic: 'Readiness and Risk Assessments' from Seeing things from both sides: A comic to help young people and professionals understand each other’s views about young survivors’ participation in efforts to address child sexual abuse and exploitation. This scene explores readiness and risk assessments and different ways of thinking about approaching participatory work with young survivors of sexual violence.

Briefing: Thinking about ‘readiness’ and risk assessment processes when supporting the participation rights of children and young people with lived experience of child sexual abuse and exploitation. This briefing shares finding from our international research project and explores the concept of ‘readiness’ – when and who decides when a young survivor may be ‘ready’ to be engaged in particular types of initiatives and activities.

Template: Risks, needs and benefits discussion guide. This discussion guide aims to help assess risks, needs and benefits related to the participation of individual children and young people in participatory projects and activities.

Template: Young people's consent form. This template includes a number of areas that you may want to include when seeking consent from individual children and young people in participatory projects and activities.

Journey companion: Recruitment. This document draws on our learning from practice and summarises some of the common challenges and tensions that may arise when looking to recruit young people into a project. It also includes some suggested strategies for approaching these issues.