survivor-project-evaluation-report-2016

Evaluation of Safety Net’s

Survivor’s Project for young people affected by sexual violence and exploitation

Dr. Valentina Cartei, PhD. July 2016

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Contents Executive summary ......................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 5 Background of the project .............................................................................................................. 5 The Evaluation ................................................................................................................................. 5 Methods ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Data analysis................................................................................................................................ 6 Ethics ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Limitations ................................................................................................................................... 7 Results.............................................................................................................................................. 7 Engagement ................................................................................................................................ 7 Perceived strengths of the project: What did participants value most? ................................. 8 New friendships and experiences .......................................................................................... 8 Making issues ‘alive’ ............................................................................................................... 8 “Soft feel” approach ............................................................................................................... 9 External agency involvement ................................................................................................. 9 Flexibility ............................................................................................................................... 10 Perceived challenges of the project ......................................................................................... 11 Group structure .................................................................................................................... 11 Friendship issues ................................................................................................................... 11 Fitting the project activities within a busy school schedule ............................................... 12 Suitability of referrals ........................................................................................................... 12 Getting referrals .................................................................................................................... 13 Setting up a user involvement group................................................................................... 13 Impact of the project: Did the project achieve the planned results? .................................... 14 Confidence and self-esteem ................................................................................................ 14 Better able to identify and articulate feelings..................................................................... 16 Better understanding of safe/unsafe risks .......................................................................... 17 Problem solving..................................................................................................................... 18 Strengthening peer and family relationships ...................................................................... 19 Seeking support .................................................................................................................... 20 Future recommendations ............................................................................................................. 21 Greater focus on peer relationships ........................................................................................ 21 Offering ongoing support in the school ................................................................................... 22 Let young people ‘make, create and do’ ................................................................................. 22 Page 2 of 31

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Targeting young people aged 11 to 14 .................................................................................... 23 Give young people greater choice ........................................................................................... 23 Simplify and strengthen the referral process .......................................................................... 24 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 25 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 25 References ..................................................................................................................................... 26 Appendix – interview questions ................................................................................................... 27

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Executive summary 

The Survivor’s Project provided 1-1 and group support for young survivors and young people at risk of sexual violence and/or sexual exploitation.

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This project unlocked a series of positive outcomes for young people who have experienced, or are at risk of experiencing, sexual violence and/or exploitation, including greater resilience and well-being, and increased safety from exploitation.

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These positive outcomes were reached through a combination of fun, active and creative activities, largely focused on emotional resilience, risk and safety.

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Supportive, trusting relationships amongst the young people themselves, and with the Safety Net worker, were at the heart of the project activities and were instrumental to the success of the project.

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There is clear potential for this type of short-term interventions to be cost-effective, particularly where they are integrated within a larger offer of ongoing support by schools.

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It is recommended that this model should continue to be provided, drawing on the learning generated from the evaluation, in order to ensure that more young survivors and young people at risk of sexual violence and exploitation can benefit from such specialist provision.

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Introduction The Survivor’s Project was a three-year project (2013–16) run by Safety Net and funded by Comic Relief.

As part of the original grant bid to Comic Relief, Safety Net committed to have an external evaluation of the project near its completion. In March 2016, I was commissioned to conduct such evaluation.

Background of the project The Survivor’s Project provided direct support for young people aged 11-25 who were survivors of sexual violence and/or at risk of sexual exploitation. At the time of writing this report, the project had involved 106 young people (28 boys and 88 girls) in Brighton & Hove and the surrounding areas.

The project aimed to help young people: 1) Cope and improve their mental and emotional wellbeing 2) Keep them safe and increase their resilience against future harm The project strove to achieve its aims through a combination of activities: 

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Weekly one-to-one sessions and small group sessions (of 2 to 6 participants) for the duration of six weeks, which were held at the young person’s school or at the local Youth Centre, during or after school hours (depending on individual arrangements with the school). Individual and group sessions were facilitated by a Safety Net worker and had a particular focus on increasing young people’s self-esteem, breaking isolation, emotional literacy and personal safety (including online safety). Average length was 45 to 60 minutes per session. One-to-one sessions were delivered to a total of 36 young people (30 girls and 6 boys). Fifty-three young women took part in the groups during the course of the project.

Residential weekends in rural locations. These were run by 2 Safety Net workers and included a range of outdoor activities which focused on exploring safety in an experiential way, team building and healthy socialising. One all-girl (8 participants), one mixed gender (5 girls and 6 boys) and two all-boy (16 participants) residentials were run in total.

Service user involvement focus groups, called “Young Voices”, with the aim to offer an informal space for young people to discuss and shape the project and make sure it reached its aims. Four groups of this nature were run and involved guided outings into town with a Safety Net worker. A total of 23 girls took part in “Young Voices”. A boys’ group was organised but had to be cancelled due to cancellations on the day.

The Evaluation The present evaluation assessed the success of the Survivor’s Project in engaging with young people and its perceived impact on young people in relation to the extent to which the project activities met the two aims stated above.

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Young people’s experiences were complemented with the comments of staff members from two schools engaged with the project and of the Safety Net worker who delivered most of the project activities.

Methods The evaluation took place between April 2016 and May 2016. Ten young people, two school staff and one Safety Net worker took part in this evaluation. Convenience sampling rather than random sampling was used as a recruitment method due to time and availability constraints.

A qualitative approach was chosen. Qualitative approaches offer the evaluator an opportunity to better understand the project by bringing forth the perspectives of those involved, through an in-depth investigation of their experiences (Yin, 2013). Semi-structured interviewing was chosen as the data collection method because it provides access to the context of people’s behaviour and thereby offers a way to understand the meaning of that behaviour (Seidman, 2012).

Six face-to-face semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with two girls who took part in multiple activities (art groups, individual support, young voices) as well as with a Child Protection Officer and a Transition and Learning Officer from two of the secondary schools involved in the project.

Two focus groups following the same semi-structured format were also conducted, one with four boys who had attended the residential weekends (two boys attending one residential, and two boys attending the other one), and one focus group with four girls attending a six-week art group. Focus groups and individual interviews were led by myself as the evaluator, and supported by the Safety Net worker who had delivered the project with all the young people being interviewed.

Data analysis The evaluation gathered qualitative data in the form of audio recordings from the interviews, which were transcribed and analysed in Nvivo 10. Photos of the artwork made during the project were also collected.

Template analysis (Cassell & Simon, 2004) was used to analyse the interview transcripts, which were coded thematically under the primary categories: ‘engagement’, ‘strengths’, ‘challenges’, ‘impact’. These codes were further organised into sub-themes according to the key elements emerging from each transcript. Sub-themes were captured in a written ‘case memo’, and these memos were then compared with one another to identify confirm the most significant recurring themes across all participants.

The following paragraphs provide detail about each of these themes as emerged from the data, alongside representative quotes from participants. In this respect quotes do not provide a ‘balanced’ picture of what happened across all activities, but are used as the best examples of the most reliable patterns that emerged.

Ethics This consultation was subject to the same ethical protocol as the wider project. The principles directing the evaluation were that no harm should come to any participant involved in the research. Safety Net were responsible for recruiting participants and organising the focus groups and interviews with the young people and the school staff.

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Prior to the interviews taking place, written consent from the young people’s guardians was sought at the beginning of the project, which included the present evaluation. All young people and professionals taking part were also informed verbally what their participation would involve. Specifically, participants were informed that they could withdraw from the evaluation at any point and ask for their data to be destroyed, without any penalty. They were also informed that the audio recordings would be securely stored and accessed only by myself as the evaluator and that they would be destroyed after being transcribed.

After giving participants the chance to ask any questions, verbal consent was sought. All young people and professionals gave their verbal consent, with the exclusion of two young people who were therefore excluded from the interviews and the report. Each young person was given a small gift to thank them for their participation. All locations were omitted from this report, and all names were removed for the sake of confidentiality.

Limitations There are two main ways in which this evaluation is limited in scope. Firstly, the presence of the worker during the interviews with young people may have biased young people’s responses to the evaluation (e.g. performance expectations). However, I felt that because the worker had built trusting relationships with those young people (as shown by her feedback and the young people’s evaluations at the end of the activities) her presence was likely to help the interviewees to speak more openly and honestly. Indeed, the worker usefully contributed to the discussions by reminding young people about what they had done together, prompting them were necessary and only when appropriate. Having the worker present also fully complied with DBS regulations as requested by the schools.

Secondly, only 10 out of 106 young people who took part in the project were interviewed, constraining the scope for identifying patterns across the different project activities and for giving voices to the experiences of all who took part. The findings identified below should therefore be taken for further consideration within future projects and not be overly generalised to all young people who are survivors or at risk of sexual violence.

Results Engagement All young people that were interviewed stated that they had enjoyed taking part and would like to re-engage if the project was run in the future, even if the activities were the same.

They also stated that they would recommend the project to their friends. The highly positive overall evaluation of the project by young people was confirmed by the two professionals, who collated verbal feedback from the students involved in the project after the sessions had taken place. Both officers also remarked how the young people who took part went on to tell their friends leading to them self-referring. As one officer put it: “What's quite nice is that some of the young people have then gone on to self-refer, 'oh can we go on that course'. That's really the best PR you can get, it's brilliant.” (Officer 1) Page 7 of 31

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As further evidence of positive engagement, two girls who had initially taken part in one-toone activities, went on to join the art groups and “Young Voices”, even though they had both acknowledged and had been identified by the school staff as normally having difficulties in interacting with their peers.

The overall high level of engagement was also substantiated by a clear positive correlation between the quantity of referrals and the rates of participation and completion (~70%).

Perceived strengths of the project: What did participants value most?

New friendships and experiences The majority of young people interviewed remarked on the opportunity to make new friends and trying new experiences as being the most valuable aspects of the project: “I thought it was good to understand other people and just...give support if they needed it. And make friends.” (Boy 4) Two of the girls and one of the boys also valued that the worker had made and given them photo collages of their group activities, so that they could have reminders of happy times they could refer back to.

“Sometimes when I get bored at home, I tidy my room and I will find something cool [in the project scrapbook], something I will look at and see...memories of doing it, I feel just better just looking at it. (girl 6)” Making issues ‘alive’ Another strength of the project was the worker’s use of examples from young people’s everyday experiences to initiate discussions around feelings and safety. This was particularly the case for online safety, which emerged as a recurring concern across all interviews and focus groups. In relation to talking about what is safe or unsafe when engaging in online conversations, one girl commented: “Not send photos, inappropriate photos, because once you send them, you never get them back...I know of other girls, taking photos in their Calvin Klein bra and bottoms, I wouldn’t do it… Coz they could easily screenshot it then friends could see it and could send it to themselves and then delete it, or something like that...I didn’t know that before” (Girl 5) One girl said that learning about keeping safe online was the most important aspect of the project for her: “I found it really helpful. Like in the past I had some social media problems and from them [the group sessions] I have learnt loads about it” (Girl 1) Page 8 of 31

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“Soft feel” approach Young people and professionals also commented positively on doing “fun” activities (e.g. outdoor activities, trips), so that it did not feel like being in an academic environment. Having “fun” appeared to be key in approaching difficult subjects in a way that felt spontaneous and engaging: “We have conversations about...self-esteem and…they ended up talking about body hair in the last session because we went to Brighton Museum and this person who works there brought up different things from the fashion in the ages, so there were corsets and we ended up talking about plastic surgery…there was a bustle so we ended up talking about, you know, how women want their bums to look bigger, and then one of the girls started talking about body hair and shaving everything, her arms, her legs, her vagina, and then we ended up having a whole discussion about that” (Worker) I myself witnessed that “soft feel” approach during the interviews. In several occasions when I asked the young people to define risk around a particular situation, the worker took the chance to clarify any emerging doubts expressed by the young interviewees without lecturing them. For example, one girl mentioned that she would stroke her cat if she felt unsafe and the worker commented: “So your cat...it looks nice, it's comforting, so it's got an important place in your life, but it's not gonna solve your problems…Can you think of an adult that could help you?” (Worker) Both the worker and one of the professionals commented that while this “soft feel” approach made it difficult at times to tackle issues of safety around sexual violence in greater depth, it could be more effective in the long run than traditional school interventions around safety: “It’s is difficult, it's what we call soft feel, because sometimes you may not get the results straight away and then you find that two three months down the road they suddenly realise they did something and that they are able to put that into practice. I am thinking of two sisters that worked with her [the Safety Net worker] … I just remember that they were really struggling and then they got into a bit of a pickle outside and they were a bit vulnerable.

But they were able to come back and just say 'we knew to do this' and so they basically called the police because they felt really unsafe. So because they worked with her and they have learnt these things that they were able to put it in practice.” (Officer 1) External agency involvement Both officers also commented that having an external agency delivering the project was very beneficial for their schools and would like Safety Net to continue this work with them. Having an external agency involved was seen as a way for students to have a safer space to talk and learn than when sessions were delivered by teachers:

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“I just think that it gives for some of our students a private space to address some really difficult subjects. It is not something that they would easily come out and share with the world, if that makes sense…I think it just frees up any kind of worries like 'who knows, who you are going to talk to' because you have the confidentiality policy with them, so there's a little bit more trust there…there's all sorts of mixed emotions with the teachers, whereas with external agencies you are literally there for what you are coming in to deliver, so I think it's less threatening.” (Officer 1) And a better chance for building young people’s resilience by encouraging self-reliance: “Because sometimes in school, like myself, children become attached to you, because I am here all the time even when they move on to different years, they still feel an attachment. Whereas if it's an outsider they can get over those things and the attachment goes with them...I still have Year 9s and 10s knocking on the door, which is lovely, but I won't be there all their lives, they need to get on their own, and by having an outside person coming they have to do that because they can't make the attachment” (Officer 2) It was also clear that both professionals placed a lot of trust on Safety Net as a provider because of the charitiy’s long-standing experience and good local reputation in working with young people. This, in turn, increased their confidence to refer their students to the project.

Their expectations were met by the positive feedback that they received, both formally and informally, from the students themselves after taking part in the project activities.

Flexibility The project offered a wide range of options both in terms of the type of support offered, ranging from individual meetings, group sessions, to short, intense interventions, like residential weekends or day outings. It also offered different means to tackle serious issues, including scenario-based discussions, craft making and outdoor pursuits. This seemed to be a strength of the project as it enabled to cater for the different needs expressed by the young people.

Both professionals also commented on the project’s flexibility to meet the school’s logistic needs. One professional said that she had to repeatedly change times for the Safety Net worker to come in and deliver the sessions, and the worker was able to work around that: “I am guilty of that [changing times], she [the worker] is so patient with me.”

(Professional 1) The worker was also able to adapt the project both in terms of content and schedule to complement what the school already offered: “I do SEAL, which is self-esteem, it's a similar thing, but I can't cover everybody and so the ones that she [the worker] takes are the ones that may need a short snap, rather than our 12, 14 weeks and then if they need a bit more when she is finished then I can pick them up...sometimes if we feel the person needs more…then I will ask [the worker], ‘when you come in next would you be able to pick them up again’. And she had...” (Professional 2) Page 10 of 31

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Perceived challenges of the project Group structure The three main challenges identified by the young people revolved around talking in front of other people, and the age and gender of the young people involved.

For example, a couple of girls who had taken part in the first residential said that they found discussion-based activities most challenging as they did not like to talk in groups: “It depends what day it is, like if I am having a good day then I will talk. If I have a bad day then I will sit quiet and listen.” (Girl 2) This is not surprising considering the sensitive nature of the topics discussed and that most young people had been referred because they had been identified as less able to communicate with their peers. This was soon picked up by the worker however, who consequently changed some of the activities to make them more interactive and physical.

Young people also had mixed reactions about cross-age groups and residential weekends. For the boys and for some of the girls this was a chance to meet with other young people they would not normally meet. Some of the younger girls also found that mixing up with older young people was beneficial, as long as there were also people of their age group: “Coz sometimes people say don't hang out with people older than you or younger than you and stuff like this, but I feel safer with people that are a couple of years older than me, or a year older than me.” (Girl 6) However, one girl disclosed that she felt uncomfortable being with younger girls, because they did not share the same experiences.

In relation to gender, most young people felt that being part of same-gender groups allowed them to open up more: “I wouldn't like it, because like, I don't really like get on with the boys and in class they would say stuff” (Girl 2) “If it's just girls, it can make me feel safer, better...coz girls can understand people.”(Girl 1) However, two girls said that they found it difficult to be part of all girls’ groups, as they both got on better with the boys and shared their interests in sports and other outdoor activities.

“It would have been great [to be with the lads]. Not talking of girly stuff.”

(Girl 4) Friendship issues While friendship building was a perceived strength of this project by the young people, it also presented some challenges due the volatile nature of some of these relationships. This was highlighted by the worker particularly in relation to the girls’ residential and by some of the girls in the art group, although the girls generally felt that the worker had facilitated a space for these problems to be dealt with. For example, during the residential weekend the worker Page 11 of 31

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spotted that one of the girls was being isolated and facilitated a whole group discussion which helped the other girls understand that: “we had to work as a team to get us through the trip and encourage everyone else to get involved.” (Girl 5) Most girls also mentioned that talking about friendships in greater detail would have been helpful: “Friendship. I would have liked to look at friendships because then you know how to...if you are falling out with a friend how to sort out” (Girl 1) Fitting the project activities within a busy school schedule From the officers’ perspective, the main challenge was how to deliver the project within an already extremely busy school environment. For example, if the Safety Net worker was ill, the school had only limited flexibility to reschedule her sessions: “Maybe we will set dates to the project and one of the workers is ill and we have to move it. Sometimes it can be challenging because these people need it now and not in two months' time. But we worked around it, we held them for a little while” (Officer 2) For one school it also proved difficult to communicate with the students in a timely manner and to check on them to make sure that they would attend their sessions: “I send them [the students] all their notes, and students being students they put them in their pockets and they forget and I am not always available to go and chase them up.” (Officer 2) The referral process was also felt to be too time-consuming: “Even the referral forms, the simpler they are, the quicker they get done.

The more complicated they are, the less likely the staff want to do them because they are under so much pressure and filling in referral forms is the last thing they want to do.” (Officer 1) Suitability of referrals Both professionals commented that while some students were easily identifiable for the project (e.g. they had police involvement for having been victims of sexual violence), it was more difficult for the school to identify those at risks and thus make referrals that would fit the project criteria. One officer suggested starting the referrals from the late autumn, especially for Year 7 students, to allow the school to get to know the new pupils and spot signs of greater vulnerability in order to make an informed referral, such as oversexualised behaviour, isolation and substance misuse issues.

Another issue in relation to referrals was young people’s insufficient awareness of why they had been referred by the school. Although schools sought parental consent in all cases, for the most part the young people did not know the exact nature of the project and why they Page 12 of 31

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had been chosen to take part. The rationale behind this choice was a desire to protect participants’ confidentiality within the school and limit their anxieties: “When we refer them, once they are accepted I would tell them they are going to a group or 1-1 session with an outside person to deal with any problems they may have. I don't tell them what they are actually going to do.

Because most of them will say already I am scared...and I say it's not like that, it's just going to be someone like me” (Officer 2).

In some cases practitioners appeared to make referrals on the basis of professional judgement or ‘gut reaction’, because they did not have enough intelligence about the children, resulting in multiple and varied interpretations of who should be targeted. This made it more difficult for the worker to assess what topics may be most useful to discuss and offer more directed support, thus potentially diluting the project’s impact: “they come for six sessions, half of the time they don't know why they are there, which is because they are at risk. Some have been sexually exploited, they are involved with the police, they have social workers, so they know...But the ones that just come because people are worried about them they don't know that this group is called survivors, that this is a survivors' group, so I say, I explain to them ‘well this is about you understanding your feelings, helping you to know when you feel safe, unsafe and use that to make decisions, good decisions’ …vaguely, touching on the subject” (Worker) Getting referrals The worker identified as a main challenge getting referrals at the beginning of the project.

Despite Safety Net having strong links with key networks and partners in Brighton and Hove (WISE, the Early Help Hub, Local Secondary Schools, the Integrated Team for Families), referrals for the project were not forthcoming from these agencies. After the project had been running for longer the referrals did come in from external agencies and social services as the project became better known through the city.

Therefore, the worker pursued a more targeted approach, directly focusing on developing better relationships with secondary schools. This proved to be the best route of referral of young people to the project and led to providing most sessions directly to young people where schools had concerns about risks of sexual exploitation and abuse of identified students.

Setting up a user involvement group Another challenge identified by the worker was the setting up of “Young Voices” as a service user involvement group: ” it did not really work as service user involvement because of the way they were set up, as one offs, the kids not knowing who is going to be there..also outings don’t lend themselves to those conversations, kids just want to have a bit of fun” (Worker) However, the worker was able to use these opportunities to complement the work done in one-to-ones, groups and residentials, by using them as a way to help the young people to Page 13 of 31

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socialise. The worker also noted how by being in informal settings, young people were more relaxed and often more open to bring up their own issues related to the project.

Impact of the project: Did the project achieve the planned results?

The project had two aims: 1) Young survivors aged 11-25 feel that support services have helped them to cope and improve their mental and emotional wellbeing 2) Young survivors aged 11-25 feel that support services have helped to keep them safe and increase their resilience against future harm All young people reported positive and beneficial changes to their feelings, attitudes, and self-concept as a result of their participation. The reported changes included being more confident, feeling better about themselves, valuing their friends more, and being more tolerant of others. They also reported greater understanding of their feelings, greater ability to identify to risks, and greater ability to problem solve and keep themselves safe. Findings around themes are detailed below.

Confidence and self-esteem The project boosted young people’s confidence and self-esteem by allowing young people to try new and challenging activities, pushing the young people to test their limits in a safe and trusting environment: “I think it's more the confidence afterwards, like I have done more things after the residential than I did before. So I spend lots more time outside than I did before”(Boy 4) Describing the experience of going through a dark tunnel, one boy from a residential weekend commented: “just having the experience of doing different things that you'd never done before, kind of gave you more confidence…Like I was scared of it [the tunnel]..but I did it…and I felt, I don't know, good, coz I'd done it. And yeah..I achieved my goal [laughter]. The first time we did it, I didn't really enjoy doing, I gave it a go and I actually liked it, so...I think it was just supportive friends and people around that I know and trust.”(Boy 2) And talking about another team activity, another boy said: “like in one of the rock pools I was slipping quite a lot and Ben (one of the facilitators) or someone else just saying "don't worry about it, just relax into it and you'll find a way to catch yourself" and that was really helpful.” (Boy 3) Art activities aimed to increase young people’s self-esteem, both by actively encouraging positive self-talk through inspirational quotes that were meaningful for young people, and by allowing young people to identify and develop their skills and talents in the process. In the words of the worker: Page 14 of 31

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“The art groups have been really great…In one of them they got to make these t-shirts and photos with inspirational quotes on. So she [a girl from the 6-week group] came up with a really good way of printing ink around this, that the tutor hadn't come up with. So she is that creative...so it's really positive for her, because that looks fantastic, really great idea...and she’s one who is finding it really hard at school because she’s been bullied. So, they come up with really nice ideas...and these are things that young people don't necessarily have access to, like, expensive equipment.” (Worker) Young people who took part in group activities were all given the artworks they produced and comic strips of the young people doing the activities in the group. This further helped young people to remind them of what they had achieved and be inspirational for the future. “one of them [young people] said that she's got it up [the comic strip] in her room, still...so this is two years ago! So that was my intention, that they have nice memories, they have...Uhm, yeah. And they have got evidence. "Yeah, I have been there". (Worker) One girl who had taken part to the art group and the “young voices” group commented: “Sometimes when I get bored at home, I tidy my room and I will find something cool [from the groups], something I will look at and see...memories of doing it, I feel just better just looking at it.” (Girl 6)

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Figure 1- artwork from one of the girls' groups

Better able to identify and articulate feelings Many of the projects activities focused on exploring one’s feelings, particularly in relation to safety, by helping young people to recognise their bodily responses to safe and unsafe situations.

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For example, one activity of the group sessions consisted in drawing an outline of the body and naming the bodily reactions when feeling increasingly unsafe. Several of the girls stated that such activity helped them understand more about safety than school programmes which simply told them who to contact when in unsafe situations, because it allowed them to identify if they were in danger by listening to and trusting their intuitions.

Some of the residential activities were aimed at making young people reflect about fear in an experiential way. As the worker explained: “part of Safety Net is developing their sense of being unsafe, so knowing how their body reacts when they feel scared, because your body will tell you "something is not OK here", maybe before your mind does, or your mind won't want to listen…so going and doing these activities is a way for them to experience this sense of scare, cause they do a lot of high stuff and things that they wouldn't normally do...and it was a way for them to have the experience of fear, so it made it very real, it wasn't just a talking about it in group activities.” (Worker) For example, boys reported that climbing into the “dark tunnel”, a pitch-black labyrinth where they had to crawl into the dark, and taking the “leap of faith”, jumping (with a harness on) to grab a trapeze from a telegraph pole, were really scary for them. Deciding whether to engage in such activities helped them understand how fear can be part of the fun and when it tips over to panic and feeling unsafe. These experiences helped them to understand how they responded to fear more generally, by listening to their bodily reactions: “It was what happens in your body when you feel scared. So like, butterflies in your stomach, sweating, getting hotter, that kind of thing.”(Boy 1) Importantly, during these activities the young people said that they felt had always an element of choice: they could say “no” if they wanted to and go to the residential facilitators if they did not join the activities, without feeling pressurised into them.

“So abseiling for me was a no...Like you have a choice to do an activity, but you are not sure whether it's going to end that you liked it or didn't like it, it's that kind of choice if you wanted to” (Boy 4) One professional noted how students were able to explain their feelings more after taking part in the project: “To start off with it'd be 'oh I just feel upset', but after some of the groups they can actually tell you 'oh I get this dryness in my throat or this pain in my tummy'. So I think it opens up a lot of things for them” (Officer 2) Better understanding of safe/unsafe risks For some of the boys who took part in the residential weekends, the “scary” activities also helped them to understand what signs to look for to help them decide when they can take risks more generally, such as the consequences encountered by other people taking those risks:

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“When I go bmx-ing I go with my friend and if I am not sure of doing it, he always goes first. So I see what happens” (Boy 3) In the individual and group sessions, the worker made use of real-life scenarios to help young people identify the factors that may increase or decrease risk: “So if you've got into a car with somebody you know, first of all we said it was no risk, but then you don't necessarily know how they drive, do you?

You don't know if they have been drinking, so all these things add to the risk.” (Worker) Some of the girls reported that these scenarios were helpful because they had found themselves in those situations before and had not considered them to be risky until they discussed it together in their group sessions: “It was helpful…getting a different perspective from someone else's perspective.” (Girl 3) “It was particularly helpful because I had an experience with a taxi..where I felt nervous and it helped me to talk about it.” (Girl 1) Sometimes the group discussions around real-life scenarios led to actual changes in the young people’s risk-taking behaviour. For example, one scenario involved older people asking young people their phone number and the group discussed how they would feel and what they could do in response. One girl said that after that: “We [her and another girl in the group] used to write down our names and then screw them up and put them in the bin…we know now just not to give out your address, coz everyone could have found it and phoned me and then they could come...weirdos…It happened to me and H the other day in the mall, some student came to us and said 'can I have your number, not your facebook', but we just walked off’ (Girl 5) Problem solving Group discussions around real-life scenarios were also valuable in helping young people to identify safer options: “So to know that there are solutions, things that you can do, different possibilities. Sometimes we get stuck in our way of thinking.” (Girl 3) One girl reported how learning about keeping safe during the project helped her in a recent incident: “We went to the seafront and then we sat on the seafront for about half an hour and then some man tried to grab us and pull us under the pier. He was talking to himself. He was just staring at us, and we walked past him and then H started laughing, and he said 'watch out', and we gave him a look and then some guys had a go at him coz they overheard. So he went and stood under the pier, taking photos of me and H and videos, and these other men came and said 'do you want us to walk you to the bus stop?' and we Page 18 of 31

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were like 'no we are fine' because obviously they were strangers and they could have put us into their car or something…really they wanted us to go with them to a club thing, because they thought we were older than we look…but then this man…he grabbed me and said 'come on you come with me' and pointed to the pier, so me and H went to the bus stop and my auntie was there, so she sat with us on the bus, so we did find an adult that we knew.” (Girl 5) Strengthening peer and family relationships One way in which the project aimed to increase young people’s safety and resilience was to help them break from isolation by supporting them to form friendships with their peers through team activities. Indeed, as mentioned previously, many of the young people had found making new friends one of the most valuable aspects of the project and said that sharing experiences during the group activities helped them to bond. This is particularly relevant for this target group as many had been referred to the project because they were struggling to form peer friendships. One boy and one girl also stated that mixing with people they didn’t know helped them to make friendships outside the project as well, giving them the confidence to approach other young people: “I was with other people and two of those people I knew one of them from my old primary school and didn't realise and then the other one, I didn't know her, but we all realised that we lived in the same area...Sometimes when I am out I see them and I hang out with them.” (Girl 6) Some of the young people remarked how the fact that mobile phones were not allowed helped them to have conversations with each other and connect more: “coz normally people will just be on their phones, not really go outside or they'll be outside, but on their phones…We don't really speak to each other.

Say if we were like this [sitting next to each other in the same room] we would still text each other.” (Girl 6) Team activities also helped young people to identify and build trusting relationships more generally. For example, one boy said how one other boy he paired up with helped him not to fall during the “leap of faith” activity. That experience helped him realise that: “If you know [that people] muck about a lot, you are not really going to trust them. But if they don't muck about and do stuff that helps you out, you kind of trust them a bit more.” (Boy 1) Improved ability to communicate and listen to one another was also commented upon by one of the professionals who observed positive changes in the students’ behaviour towards their peers: “Those with friendship issues they calm down because they understand how people feel.” (Officer 2).

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Said professional also showed me the record of one of the girls who, before working one-toone with the Safety Net worker, had several incidents of disruptive behaviour, and how these had lessened both in frequency and severity.

Working in small groups seemed to strike the balance between allowing friendships to develop and being able to give space to everyone to feel heard: “I think it's the right size. So we didn't have to share loads of things with loads of people. Normally, I can't really work with loads and loads of people because I get frustrated. This group, how it's been going, it felt good.” (Girl 1) Some of the young people reported that as well as improving their peer relationships with the other young people involved in the project, they noticed an improvement in the relationships in their wider support network. For example, one girl mentioned how her relationship with her mum had improved since attending the group as she was able to use some of the communication skills she had learnt during the project. One boy also mentioned that trying out outdoor experiences had led him to get closer and interact more with his siblings: “I have learnt to like play with like, I don't know how to explain it, but like, I do activities with my brother and sister, like more, since the residential.” (boy 2) Seeking support Another objective of the project was to improve young people’s resilience by helping them identify safe adults they can trust and get help from. One particular tool that all participants commented upon was the Safety Net “Helping Hand”: young people draw the outline of their hand and for each finger identify five safe adults they can talk to if they feel unsafe. In the palm of their hand they write people, activities, pets and soothing objects that make them feel safe; on their wrist unknown adults that they can trust in an emergency (e.g. Childline).

As the worker explained: “So the helping hand is a Protective Behaviour technique to identify, as a child, adults that would listen to you, that would help you…so one woman I worked with, she's an older young person and a mum, isolated, and anxious.

She hardly went out because she was so anxious. And she said it was really helpful for her to talk about the helping hand. She had one person on her hand, who wasn’t easily available, has no one else that she talks to.”(Worker) Noticeably, all young people remembered at least some of the individuals and organisations they had originally identified, despite having done the exercise one year or more ago, indicating that this tool can be a simple and effective way to help young people keep safe.

All the young people who took part in the present evaluation also seemed to have a positive, trusting relationship with the Safety Net worker. This is remarkable, considering that most of these young people showed distrust of adults in general, and authority figures in particular, Page 20 of 31

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and considering the short lifespan of the project activities (from a few days to a few hours for a few weeks).

The ability to build a trusting relationship with the worker appeared to help young people reach out for the available support outside the project. One of the professionals remarked how after taking part in the project, some young people appeared to be more willing to talk to school staff about keeping themselves safe and discuss risk-taking behaviour and they were more able to open up in general: “I had 2 or 3 [children] from DV [Domestic Violence] families being able to talk more openly about their lives in general. Whereas before their whole life was taboo. Their attendance is getting better, so they want to stay here, rather than being unsure whether to stay home.” (Officer 2) Importantly, developing a trusting relationship with an adult was seen as two-way by young people: “she like, she trusted us, so we thought we'd trust her. And she gave us loads of information and she gave us food (laughter)” (Girl 6) The young people also remarked that the Safety Net worker was someone whom they felt listened by, who would keep confidentiality and who would keep her word and act upon it.

Some young people contrasted this with their experience of support within their school, and their unwillingness to approach staff members because of it: “I don’t want to talk to teachers. They will probably just say 'go back to class'.” (Girl 3) “Coz they [the teachers] are all moany and then they tell tales on me.” (Boy 3) “They said they’d do this and that, but they don’t do anything.” (Boy 4)

Future recommendations Young people and school staff were asked for suggestions about how the programme could be improved if it was to continue. Some of the ideas follow directly from the challenges identified above; others are specific suggestions related to topics that the young people felt particularly relevant at this point in their lives. I distilled some of the learning from this evaluation to make recommendations for the future of the present project and for those wishing to run similar projects for young people who are survivors or are at risk of sexual violence and exploitation.

Greater focus on peer relationships When asked about what topics young people would have liked to discuss, many reported that they would have liked to explore more about how to relate to their peers. Particularly, all young people interviewed had experienced bullying either recently or in the past and suggested focusing on bullying in the future.

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Whilst the topic of bullying was outside the scope of this project, given the importance of peer relationships to break isolation and increase resilience, it is recommended that greater focus should be given to this topic. Safety Net have remarkable expertise on the subject, and have been offering training to children and young people who have been affected by bullying, as well as to professionals working with them. Hence they would be perfectly placed to incorporate elements of bullying prevention in the project and/or offer bullying prevention sessions alongside it.

Offering ongoing support in the school While the short-term interventions provided by the project have proven effective overall in increasing young people’s safety, well-being and resilience, it remains a concern that some of the young people after the project still felt they did not have safe adults, particularly within the school, to turn to if they were concerned about their safety.

Given the importance of consistent, trusting relationships for young people, and particularly in the case of young people who are survivors of sexual violence or at risk of sexual violence and exploitation, it is recommended that Safety Net collaborate more closely with schools to enable them to offer ongoing support, for example in the form of staff training on issues of safety and sexual exploitation. A couple of boys in one school said that the staff were not specifically trained to work with them, a point that was also echoed by one of the officers: “I just think that Safety Net did a really good job, we do also value the fact that they do training courses as well and that's been really helpful. I think we really need to embed it in the curriculum a lot more, so it'd be good to have Safety Net around PSHE really, I know they don't do it in primary, but in secondary would be great.” (Officer 1) A further suggestion for ongoing support would be to offer peer mentoring as part of the project and encourage some of the young people who took part in in it in the past to become mentors for their peers. For example, one girl spoke about trusting peers that are slightly older than her because they are perceived to have more life experience, but at the same time to be young enough to relate to. One professional also mentioned peer mentoring as a way to provide positive models to young survivors of sexual violence: “I had a tough time but I have overcome it” (Officer 2)

Let young people ‘make, create and do’ Overall, the young people spoke enthusiastically about the different activities they engaged in during the project and both boys and girls suggested that in the future these could be further expanded to include sports such as football and cycling. Girls and boys also expressed that they were less keen to participate in the future in discussion-based groups or engage in activities where they had to talk about feelings directly: “Like if I had a bad day, like today it's not bad, but for a few days I can get quite emotional and writing feelings down didn't really help me.” (Girl 1) The young people also said that they wanted to share what they had learnt during the project. Some girls suggested making a short film: Page 22 of 31

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“It would have been cool to make like, a mini iMovie or something, like on bullying…to explain it...like how it affects people” (Girl 2) Young people also appreciated having something to remember the project by, such as the collages of their residential activities made by the worker or their own artwork made during the groups. These objects were being used long after the project had finished and appeared to hold an important symbolic value, reminding young people of the skills they had learnt, what they had achieved, the friendships they had formed and the key prevention messages they had discussed. It is recommended that the project in the future continues to let young people 'make, create and do' as much as possible, and that support resources, from self-help tips to sign-posting information are further integrated in the artwork young people produce.

Targeting young people aged 11 to 14 While the project was open to young people aged 11 to 25, both officers highlighted that Year 7 and Year 9 children would particularly benefit from this type of project. As one officer put it: “The reason for year 9 is because it is always becoming apparent the ones that are developing some concerning behaviours… For year 7, it's because, to nip it in the bud really. They are just more reachable, they still have got that sense of coming from primary, they are still not quite sure of themselves, but they have done quite a lot of work in primary already around being unsafe, but very often not really fully understanding all of that.

For example for a lot of them they are encountering new dangers, like they are getting the bus to school for the first time, whereas maybe mum or dad or carer would take them to school on a daily basis and picking them up. So they have got a new level of independence, which makes them more vulnerable out in the community.” (Officer 1) It is recommended that future interventions should narrow the target age to focus on young people aged 11 to 14. Narrowing the gap could help devise project activities specific to the age group. It would be helpful to consider running groups with young people of the same age as well as cross-age, given that some young people mentioned that they did not feel comfortable with having people of different ages.

Give young people greater choice While for the majority of young people being in all-boy or all-girl groups was important to their feelings of safety, this was not the case for all the interviewees. Two girls stated that they would have preferred if the groups were mixed. Both said that had strong male friendships in and outside the school, and felt that they got on better with boys than with girls.

Some of the girls also expressed that they would have liked to participate in some of the activities that were on offer for the boys’ residential weekends, while one boy said he would have liked to take part in art activities which were offered to the girls. One officer reflected that some young people may have enjoyed sharing their contrasting experiences and challenge each other’s assumptions about the opposite gender.

It is recommended that young people be given the choice to participate in same-gender or mixed-gender environments, and for the whole range of activities to be open to all genders.

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It was also clear that some young people had not received enough information about why they had been selected for the project. It appeared that some schools were reluctant to disclose about the project for fear of young people not engaging. Finding referral mechanisms that give vulnerable young people greater agency without compromising their best interests and without failing to protect them are needed. Future interventions could facilitate a closer, trusting relationship between school staff and pupils by training staff so that they feel well-equipped to have conversations around sexual violence and exploitation with their students.

Simplify and strengthen the referral process Determining how to target the young people most at risk of sexual exploitation before risks escalate is particularly challenging. Education services are often best placed to detect the early onset of risky behaviour and other risk factors. However, as suggested by the officers’ comments, school staff may lack the time needed to make referrals as well as the intelligence about the young people required to make appropriate assessments.

One way to improve the referral process would be, as one practitioner suggested, to minimise paperwork and opening up referrals only after the school staff have had enough time to know the children. Future interventions would also benefit from a shared understanding of the key criteria for referrals to the project to avoid under- or over-targeting and to provide the most appropriate interventions for each young person.

It is recommended that future interventions include closer communication with the schools in co-developing the referral pathway: this may include establishing a shared understanding of the projects’ aims and assessment criteria, timeline for accepting referrals, referral forms to be used and by whom within the school.

While this evaluation was solely based on young people being referred from the schools, it was originally open to all young people within and outside educational settings. Yet, it proved difficult for the project to access the number of referrals required from outside the schools, despite Safety Net being engaged in multiple agencies working with vulnerable young people locally. It was also a challenge for Safety Net to encourage young people to attend sessions based in community settings, with attendance at after school groups being variable even when transport was provided. Given that many vulnerable young people do not engage with the educational system, it is important to establish alternative referral pathways to enable all survivors and those at risk of sexual exploitation and violence to access the project. It is recommended that research is carried out with local agencies working with vulnerable young people to identify and overcome possible barriers to referrals.

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Conclusion The collated experiences of the young people taking part in this evaluation and of the school staff who support them suggest that the project achieved its aims, namely to increase young people’s mental and emotional well-being, and increase their safety and resilience against future harm.

This evaluation has identified a few areas for improvement which would further strengthen this already effective project, so that similar future initiatives may reach out to even more young people who are survivors of sexual abuse and/or at risk of sexual exploitation, and meet their needs more fully.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the young people and the professionals who took part in the interviews and focus groups.

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References Cassell, C., & Symon, G. (2004). Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organisational Research. London, UK: SAGE. Seidman, S. (2012). Contested knowledge: Social theory today. Chichister, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Yin, R. K. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.

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Appendix – interview questions Topic 1: Overall Project Evaluation Core questions What did you take part in?

Prompts & expansion material

How did you find the activities you took part in?

Anything you particularly liked?

Residential activities: ‘leap of faith’ kayaking bonfire comic strips

What was most useful?

Anything that you didn’t like?

What was least useful?

What, if anything, could have been done differently?

Would you recommend the project to a friend?

For school staff only:

Art group activities: Photos with inspirational quotes T-shirt making Flip books Young voices: Trips to museum and ice cream place If participants took part in more than one activity, ask for comparisons

To what extent, in your view, did the project meet its aims?

What, if any, were the challenges from the perspective of the school?

Would you like this project to be run again?

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Topic 2: Improved Well-being (aim 1) Topic Focus Core questions Mental and emotional wellbeing

Group/residential: How was your experience of being in the group?

Topic 3: Coping Skills (aim 1) Core questions

Prompts & expansion material Whether knowing people already made it easier or not to attend Making new friends / feeling connected or not Dealing with confrontations

Prompts & expansion material Practical skills Keeping healthy: sport, exercise, food

What, if anything, do you think you have you learnt from the activities you took part in?

Anything you learnt from the project that it’s been helpful later on (e.g. coping strategy you are still using)?

What are some things that people of your age do to keep themselves healthy?

Do you do any of those things? Why or why not?

Emotional resilience: - Dealing with fear – how to keep safe - Dealing with emotions/ expressing emotions (art, group, confrontation with peers) Prompts for residentials: - team activities to experience fear - team building activities - comic strips Prompts for art groups: - self-expression - self-esteem (how did it feel to put words on the photos? create flipbook?)

- using sophisticated equipment Helping hand

Topic 4: Risk perception and safety (aim 2)

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Core questions

Prompts & expansion material

What are some things that you do to keep yourself safe?

Did the project help you increase your understanding of personal safety? How? Do you think that people in your year would benefit from thinking about risk?

Feeling safe/unsfe in the body (residentials: ‘leap of faith’ type exercises) With whom to feel safe/unsafe Where to feel safe/unsafe Emotional risks Reputational risks Others

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Topic 5: Pressure (aim 2) Core questions To what extent do you think that people of your age are pressured by their peers? In what ways?

Are there any differences in the pressures experienced by young men and women?

Anything you have learnt from the project about how you can keep yourself or your friends safe from these pressures?

Prompts & expansion material Mention sex Gender differences Sources of pressure Role of the media - Magazines, TV, videos, papers, films etc.

Online safety, naked photos women of your age are pressured about sex by older men

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Topic 6: Sources of information and services (aim 2) Core questions What information, resources, or support, if any, have you been able to draw upon by taking part in the project?

Prompts & expansion material

Disclosures and support, especially around sex and relationships

Is there anyone that young people don't talk to?

Don't like talking to?

Are there any differences between young men and women seeking help?

What information, resources, or supports could the school/ organisations provide to help young people feel safe?

Role of parents, siblings, relations, friends, teachers, church leaders, organisations Is there anything that would stop young people from going?

Barriers to attendance Gender variation

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