August can be a quiet month. So if you are looking for some extra reading and a chance to learn from, and exchange ideas with, colleagues working on issues of sexual violence, safeguarding and participation, please take a look at some of the work going on at the International Centre. This summer we draw your attention to the following three programmes of work:
Our Voices
The Our Voices programme of work promotes the involvement of children and young people affected by sexual violence in research, policy and practice. On the website you can find links to publications, blogs and more details about the projects that are included within it.
If you are interested in joining a pan-European community of professionals who are interested in participatory, rights-based approach to engaging with young people affected by sexual violence, please join the Our Voices Research and Practice Network. Here you can find podcasts, ethical challenges and tools for using in participatory work with children and young people.
Contextual Safeguarding Network
The Contextual Safeguarding Network brings together practitioners across the United Kingdom to share and generate knowledge on contextual approaches to safeguarding young people from violence and abuse. The network promotes theory-informed practice and seeks to develop practice-informed research co-created with academics and practitioners. We seek to accelerate the learning from, piloting of, contextual approaches to safeguarding by disseminating research findings and running in-person and online trainings and events. Members are encouraged to submit ideas for trainings or materials so that Research Team can respond to the identified needs of practitioners. You can join the network here.
Alexi Project
The Alexi Project ‘Hub and Spoke’ Initiative is a phased funding programme, which aimed to extend the reach of 16 CSE services into new geographical areas over a five year period (2013-2018). A team in the International Centre have been evaluating the project, and will be publishing their final report this autumn. The project will be of particular interest to providers, funders and commissioners of CSE services, and will provide the largest data-set yet on how services from different organisations and locations are tackling CSE. Some key resources to look at so far include
- Recordings and an event report from a one-day conference exploring how to address a lack of children’s participation in cases of CSE
- A series of blog posts about CSE services
- A full page of publications (including the year 1 and 2 reports, and a scoping review of children’s participation in CSE services)
Photo by Niklas Veenhuis on Unsplash
The Safer Young Lives Research Centre (SYLRC) Blog 