4: Recruiting children and young people

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.   

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).

Recruitment is often not straightforward in participatory projects with children and young people who have experienced sexual violence. In the Our Voices programme we have experienced a number of barrriers including:

• 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 to potential partners.

Children and young people have also shared different areas that have created barriers for them personally including:

• Fearing that other people will find out they took part in a project about sexual violence
• The timing of projects when young people have exams or other things happening in their personal life
• Some young people having to arrange childcare for their own children
• 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.

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, stored 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 information sheet or project brief. However, it is also helpful to think about how to make such information age-appropriate and trauma-informed.

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

Developing a consent form that outlines exactly what you are asking for consent for from young people is important (see example consent form). 

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

However, it is also important to explain what different concepts and elements used in the consent form mean. This could be done through using examples or talking through different scenarios, so the information becomes clear and meaningful to children and young people.

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 withdraw consent or 'opt out' of different activities and sessions.

Depending on the age of the young person and the national legal framework, it may 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. 

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 (see more on section 5: preparing and training).

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.

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.

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.

As noted in section 3: planning, 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.

Our research 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 learning suggests that it is also important for young people to be able to ‘test out’ how ready they are by taking part in different activities. They should however have support in place and also know that they can withdraw if they find anything too difficult.

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

• Our Comic on 'Readiness and Risk Assessments'
• Our briefing paper: 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