6: Doing

The initial scoping, planning, recruiting and training phases all contribute to building a safe space for children and young people to work together.

Before asking young people to explore topics that might be challenging to discuss openly, in the Our Voices projects, we have built in workshops and activities to create a space where people feel comfortable to discuss these topics.

The Creating a safe space: Ideas for the development of participatory group work to address sexual violence with young people includes lots of different activities and exercises to help you plan these initial sessions.

Through testing these out in different projects, we have documented how young people have found some of these different activities.

Practice example: Setting group ground rules in a creative project in Kenya and Uganda As part of the Our Voices III project, we worked with facilitating partners – Uganda Youth Development Link (UYDEL) and the Kenya Alliance for Advancement of Children (KAACR) – on a creative project entitled ‘Progressing Participation as Protection’. The aim of the project was to support dialogue between young people in different countries about the relationship between participation and protection rights in the context of child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSA/E). The project provided a platform to allow young people to share key messages about the value of participation, from their perspectives, with professionals and other young people. In order to implement this project, the Our Voices team at the Safer Young Lives Research Centre teamed up with our Young Researchers’ Advisory Panel (YRAP) to design a series of six workshops. These workshops included different activities that aimed to help young people reflect and consider what is positive about young people’s participation and develop some key messages to share with others. Once the workshop plans were created, these were then facilitated by our local partners in Kenya and Uganda. Nineteen young people, aged 17-25 years old (15 females and 4 males) took part in these workshops. During the process note-takers from each partner organisation captured how the young people engaged in the activities and recorded key discussions points. These activities provided a foundation for the young people to develop and curate key messages about this topic which were then audio-recorded for a podcast exploring the value of participation. In the initial workshops we included an activity for the group to set ground rules. This was taken from Creating a safe space: Ideas for the development of participatory group work to address sexual violence with young people it gives young people the opportunity to define how the group will operate throughout the workshops. The activity involves creating a simple agreement that outlines how the group will/won’t behave during their time together to help everyone feel safe. Group members can work in pairs or think by themselves about things they would like to include in the group agreement, including how they want the facilitator to behave. This might be things like ‘arrive on time’, or ‘respect other people’s views’. Everyone is then asked to share their ideas and the facilitator asks if the rest of the group understand and agree that this should be added to the list. If so, these are captured on flipchart paper. The facilitator may ask for clarification to make sure concepts are clearly understood – e.g. ‘what does respect mean?’ ‘how would we know if someone is being (dis)respectful?’. It’s also important to be realistic and mindful that although everyone may agree to a rule, such as ‘it’s important to be on time’, there may be things that get in the way and therefore it’s about trying to respect the rules as best as people can. It is also important to think as a group what will happen if rules are disregarded and whether for some of these rules a sanction should be in place if they are continuously broken. Once the agreement has been finalised everyone (including the facilitator) should mark or sign their names on the agreement. The idea is that each workshop will then begin with a reminder of this agreement and group members and the facilitator can refer back to them if they need to throughout the discussions. It was interesting to see that both groups came up with similar rules. These included rules around mobile phones being on silent; respect for privacy/confidentiality; full participation; respecting each other and each others’ views which included listening to each other. In Kenya the group also noted that young people should have a right to be silent and that the space should be free and happy. In Uganda the group talked about the importance of time management and team work. Image: Ground rules developed by the group of young people in Uganda. Whilst the ground rules exercise is simple, some group members shared at the end of the project that having these rules helped them feel safe.

Whether a research or practice project, there will be a phase that involves gathering existing, baseline information.

This knowledge and information might lie within the group of children and young people who have been recruited into the project, or the project partners, or it may need to be gathered from others (professionals, community members, other children and young people) to:

• understand the current contex
• identify a problem or gap and;
• explore strategies or questions to find out more and/or develop activities and actions.

In the Our Voices programme, we have taken different approaches (and roles) to gathering this initial information. This includes:

• working with partners to facilitate consultations with children and young people to understand what they think the key issues are related to sexual violence in their local areas (and how they might want to be involved in prevention actions and activities) (see 'They don't talk about it enough')
• creating a training programme for Youth Advocates that included sessions to support them to explore and identify what is going on in their own contexts and help them identify advocacy issues and activities in their local context (Our Voices Too project).

After gathering initial information and evidence, there may be the need to collect further data to better understand the issue and to generate a stronger evidence-base that can then be used to undertake advocacy.

Once information has been gathered, there is a need to understand the information or ‘data’ and think about what the priority issue/s are for the group and how, and in what ways, they may need to be tackled.

When working in groups with children and young people who have experienced childhood sexual violence, it may be challenging to reach consensus on what is the most important issue to address or prioritise. Everyone’s experiences will be diverse.

We have seen how, despite this, young people can often identify those issues that resonate in some way with all of the group.

For example, in the Our Voices Too Youth Advocacy Project, all of the three groups independently chose more or less the same advocacy topic - how victims and survivors of sexual violence are viewed and treated by first contact professionals. This was an issue they all wished to address in their advocacy activities.

Through the Our Voices Programme, children and young people have developed a wide range of resources.

This includes:

• Films
• Animations
• Postcard campaigns
• Photo exhibitions
• Online journals
• Blogs
• Educational tools and training packs 

Image 1: Poster developed by Youth Advocates in Albania as part of the Our Voices Too project. This poster urges police officers to treat victim-survivors of sexual violence with respect. The team framed these posters and sent them to police stations around the country.

Check out other ouputs below!

Following research and analysis comes a period of planning for what actions or activities young people may want to do to address the issue or gap they have identified and prioritised. This may include for example: holding meetings with senior officials, initiating campaigns, and raising awareness about the issue with different groups with the goal of mobilising others to take action.

Facilitating participatory work requires researchers and practitioners to relinquish some power and control. Although thoughtful planning is necessary, facilitators should anticipate that there will always be unknowns as ideas develop and directions change. This means that there has to be an ongoing focus, and continuing revisiting of key ethical issues including:

Communication and choice

As plans evolve and take shape, it is important to have ongoing conversations about what any changes might mean for children and young people’s participation.

For example, if a young person initially joins a project to share their views in a group setting, but are then invited to share their views at an event or conference with others, it is important to discuss this in detail.  This will involve talking to young people individually so they can make an informed choice about whether they would like to participate or not.  

This is part of  the ‘ongoing consent’ process and ensuring young people have the opportunity to understand and consider the potential consequences, both positive and negative, from their engagement in different activities.

There should always be options and choices for young people to ‘opt in and out’ of activities and facilitators should be prepared to manage potentially challenging group dynamics that may stem from this (e.g. young people opting out of certain activities may leave others feeling that they are doing ‘all the work’).

Maintaining interest and engagement

It might be challenging for young people to stay engaged and interested in projects, particularly when they are busy with school, college, friends, work and other responsibilities and activities.

Across the Our Voices Programme, young people have stepped away from projects for different reasons. Having an ‘open door policy’, and supporting young people to return to the group if they wish, can be helpful in supporting their continued engagement.

Ethics and risk management

Coordinating or facilitating participatory research or action-based projects and activities brings with it the need to be adaptable and flexible. As plans and strategies change, it is important to reflect on how any changes may lead to additional ethical implications.

Ethical protocols and strategies are typically set before the work commences, based on an initial plan of the content and activities (see section 2: planning). Having a 'live risk register' that is updated as the work develops can be a useful tool. This can be used to help identify these risks, record them for wider discussion and plan mitigation strategies, with colleagues and the children and young people involved.

Public identity disclosure and anonymity

When working with a group of children and young people, it is likely that within the group there will be different perspectives and views on how the group should be described to others.

There will be different levels of comfort with being identified as someone who has experienced childhood sexual violence, or being associated with this topic. There are challenges around managing this particularly when describing the project or group to others. Part of this relates to how the project is framed from the outset (see section 4: recruiting children and young people).

It is important to have conversations with children and young people individually and in a group, to explore different views on this and accommodate different preferences.  All of the group should feel comfortable with how they are described.  

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.

See the activity ‘Our Shield: creating a safe group identity’ used in Our Voices Too project as an example of how to facilitate these conversations.

We often see how groups may choose to be introduced or described differently depending on the audience. For example, if meeting with individual professionals they may wish to identify as a victim-survivor however if meeting with others, in larger groups or at conferences they may prefer to be introduced as a youth advocate, volunteer or consultant.

How young people choose to identify in public is their choice. They should never be asked or expected to disclose their identity as a victim-survivor and should be supported to contribute their knowledge and expertise in ways that do not rely on this.

Read the comic on public identity disclosure to understand some of the things to consider when discussing this issue with children and young people in the context of childhood sexual violence.

A key aspect of planning the ethics and safeguarding aspects of participatory work is anticipating the potential for a participant to say something that makes the facilitator worry for the young person’s safety – or the safety of someone else.

Clear protocols of how disclosures will be handled need to be developed prior to the work commencing (see section 2: planning). 

If projects involve partners and gatekeepers, disclosure protocols should be discussed, agreed and documented in for example, service level agreements or memorandums of expectation, so all parties are clear about the process that will be followed if a disclosure arises.

Training and preparation can help facilitators feel equipped and confident to handle disclosures that might be made.

Facilitators must also be clear about this and communicate clearly to children and young people involved at the outset of the project on the boundaries of confidentiality.

See an example activity ‘the toothpaste exercise’ in Our Voices Too toolkit that can help open up this discussion with children and young people in a group setting. 

In the event of a disclosure being made, facilitators and/or partners should support the young person and communicate what will happen next.

Adapted from NSPCC: Dealing with a disclosure

There will always be the potential for children and young people to be triggered by engaging in projects that relate to experiences of trauma (read more about triggering in section 3: planning). 

Facilitators need to give this careful thought and attention when planning and delivering projects and activities and ensure the right support structures are in place. 

Open lines of communication, shared decision-making with young people, and ensuring they are clear about the purpose, nature and potential risks of participating in any activity may also help to allay fears around this. 

In preparation, it can be helpful for facilitators to be attuned to the type of behaviours that children and young people in their context may display which may indicate triggering. This will differ for individuals but may include:

• Rapid breathing
• Shaking
• Fight, flight or freeze responses
• Outbursts
• Dissociating

Facilitators will also need to think about how they might respond to these signs.

It may be appropriate to have a conversation with children and young people beforehand to ask how they would like the facilitator to respond or act if they do become distressed. This may include:

• Pausing
• Acknowledging that this is causing some discomfort so asking if the young person needs to take a break
• Asking what you can do to help
• Initiating some simple grounding techniques – such as inviting the young person to breathe or count together.

As the work evolves children and young people may require additional training to support them to engage and lead different activities. For example, if they have an opportunity to be involved in facilitating workshops, speaking publicly or undertaking data analysis, providing them with training that focusses on a specific skill can help them feel confident and prepared. 

Children and young people often want to be involved in the next steps of a project (if possible) or opportunities that allow them to share their learning or experience from being part of it.

This can sometimes involve meeting and talking with others outside of the group they were initially involved with. As sexual violence remains a taboo topic and is difficult to navigate in many societies, this requires special consideration. 

It can be helpful to spend time as a group to think about:

• What they plan to share
• How they plan to share it
• How they might answer certain questions or deal with different scenarios
• Standard responses they can prepare if they receive questions that are inappropriate in some way
• What to do if they freeze, forget something or need support from others.

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.

See the activities ‘Scenario planning’ and ‘The world’s worst…’ used in Our Voices Too to help children and young people anticipate and plan for risks associated with dissemination and public engagement and create a collaborative risk assessment.

As noted in section 2: scoping, readiness is multidimensional. When thinking about ‘readiness’ in the context of the participation of children and young people who have experienced sexual violence, we often talk about ‘readiness’ just with respect to young people – ‘are they ready?’.

If children and young people have developed materials for professionals or are speaking at events, it is important to think about what could be done to prepare these audiences to encourage positive behaviours.

This may involve conversations, training and capacity building around some key themes including:

• The value and importance of children and young people's lived experience
• How this compliments/ aligns to commitments made nationally/ organisationally 
• The impact of trauma on young people and ongoing impact of this for those involved 
• The importance of reactions and interactions with young people (providing examples of inappropriate comments and questions)
• The need to be clear, open and transparent in communicating with young people
• The importance of feedback and letting children and young people know what changes their work and inputs have made.