Engaging young advisors in creating strategies for increasing safety at the interface of new technologies

and teenage intimate partner violence and abuse

Cath Larkins, Nicky Stanley, Christine Barter, Nadia Aghtaie, Marsha Wood, Carolina Overlien, Per Hellevik, Noemi Deluca, Gianna Cappello, Susana Pavlou, Stalo Lesta, Georgi

Apostolov, Luiza Shahbazyan

Presentation Aims

The engagement of young people as advisors to the STIR study:1. How were young people involved?2. What challenges did we encounter?3. What strategies did we develop?4. Key Issues5. What would we recommend for

future research?

Who was involved as a young advisor?

• >100 young people aged 13-21• 1-3 groups in each country• Each group had 3-25 members• Male and female, although some female only• Recruited through schools and youth groups

1. How were young people involved as advisors?

Creating a shared space

• Nested within other activities and stand alone.• Online shared dialogue

http://stiritup.eu/young-people/

What did young people advise on?1) Developing the website2) Suggesting questions for the questionnaire used in

schools3) Contributing to design of information leaflets and

consent forms for schools4) Online discussions to develop share understandings5) Developing an app and other web based materials to

help young people facing these issues6) Identifying key messages and resolving tensions in

data interpretation.

What was the impact of young people’s advice?

1) The website – improved, interactive, but owned by some more than others.

2) The questionnaire became more nuanced in describing emotions, new technologies & shorter!

3) More accessible information leaflets and consent forms

4) Online discussions were led by them entirely5) Their ideas word for word, directed the app

content6) Press release/campaigns on their key messages

1. Shared Advice – learned about (their own) relationships

2. Gain skills and leadership for CV3. Proud of scale of project and achievements

‘It's been a brilliant experience, and I am proud to have been able to work with such an amazing group and come up with such a life-changing app. We've had some very positive feedback from everyone who's seen it. They're telling us that it's a great app which can help so many people who end up in a controlling relationship to get advice, help and reassurance.’ (UK)

What was the impact on young people?

2. What challenges did we encounter?2a On-line discussionNo direct interaction with the website discussion forums (except in Norway and to a very limited extent in the UK)

• face to face discussion of the issues• read through website (online or in paper form) at sessions • experiential activities used to trigger a dialogue. • seldom direct responses posted to comments from other young people• discussions of the various topics were documented (translated) and

then ‘transferred’ online

Language barrier ? in Cyprus and Italy vs no language barrier in Norway and UK?

2. What challenges did we encounter?2a On-line discussionLanguage barrier ?‘Sessions were organized during English class, so English was a barrier only to a certain extent.’ (Italy) ‘Most of the group members spoke very good English, their interaction during the YAG meetings was in Greek. … Language did not appear to be a barrier, as most of the young people appeared comfortable to read the responses …in English.’ (Cyprus)

STIR ITAL 5January 27th, 2014 3:57pm Per vivere una buona relazione sono necessari il rispetto reciproco, il dialogo e l’affetto. Una relazione è abusiva quando uno dei partner cerca di sopraffare l’altro, costringendolo a trascurare quelle che sono le proprie volontà e manifestando una gelosia eccessiva e fuori luogo.

STIR BULGARIA 2April 30th, 2014 10:38amДобрите взаимоотношения според мен са тези, които се основават на уважение, отдаденост и доверие, засвидетелствани ежедневно с безброй малки жестове. Онлайн:Тук нещата не стоят много по-различно. Например, едни добри онлайн взаимоотношения не би трябвало да включват злоупотреба с материал, който едната страна споделя (изпраща, препраща) с другата

STIR NORWAY 3March 15th, 2014 4:22pmSo, I want to ask all of you, do you think that being abused in a relationship only means your partner hitting you or physically damaging you? Mental abuse is really underrated and often goes unnoticed which really concerns me because it can hurt just as much as physical if not more.

2b Other Challenges• Recruitment and retention• original young people ‘dropped out’ due to other

commitments.• very busy with school and after school activities. • Host project lost funding

• The long texts reviewed = a bit boring. • Facilitating authentic, honest discussion on these

sensitive issues• Timing = dates of sessions and progress through

the project milestones

3. Strategies to overcome these challenges

3a Valuing contributions • Break times and vouchers = valuing • Status of the project = motivating: contribute to a

European project that would reach thousands of young people all over Europe

• Very flexible about timing - when and how long (e.g if they seemed tired from school)

• Food - serve pizza if the came straight from school• Accepting turnover- don’t have to stay the distance

3. Strategies to overcome these challenges

3b Ways of discussing the issues• Working in smaller groups helped them focus. • Keep the discussions live on closed Facebook

pages - using questions or provocative publications of relevant news

• Using draw-write techniques / discussion carousels

3. Strategies to overcome these challenges

3c Provide other resources • Open discussions with information about intimate

violence – forms, factors - so that young people overcome the taboo and understand that it is a problem many people face.

• Include our research topic AND other issues they are interested in - online risks such as bullying, privacy and others.

• Provide them with support to take forward their own activities, in the quite times of the STIR project.

4. Key issues

Ownership of the online environment.Online discussions moderated by adult researchers in each country, partly because of safeguarding concerns but also to increase exchange.Inter-country group dynamics were not sufficiently developed to enable young advisors to have direct dialogue between countries.

5. Recommendations1. Facebook, but …

a) not as substitute for face to face.b) Give them responsibility for it

2. Encourage young people to initiate a campaign of their own. Link this to individual engagement with the website outside of the sessions.

3. Include young people with greater confidence in English.

4. Bringing young people from the different countries together at the start and end of the project – international travel budget.

www.stiritup.eu

Thank you