Public Engagement

WINNER- MVLS Engagement Awards 2021

Equally Safe at School (ESAS) is an intervention developed for secondary schools to help them take a whole school approach to preventing gender-based violence (GBV). The intervention was designed collaboratively by Rape Crisis Scotland and the University of Glasgow team and co-produced with schools. We did evaluation research during the ESAS pilot and turned our findings into public engagement tools including an animated film, and an interactive map of school challenges. The tools promote awareness and understanding of GBV in school; provide a key resource for classroom discussion; and facilitate recruitment into, and engagement with, the ESAS intervention.   

The engagement tools stem from an enduring collaboration between

• MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Services Unit
• Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS)
• and stakeholders including schools, young people, experts in gender-based violence, health and education.

For the film the team worked with Media Co-Op (Glasgow) because of their drive to communicate messages for social change and their commitment to working ethically, sustainably and collaboratively. 

A logical progression of our research was to design Engagement tools, both to support recruitment and engagement in ESAS and to raise awareness and understanding how GBV affects young people at school.

We designed a short animated film to draw attention and spark discussion.

We designed an interactive ‘systems map’ to show how factors shaping GBV in schools are interlinked.

Both engagement tools were designed directly from research data (school surveys and focus group discussions with students and staff), and inputs from an advisory group of young people. Our latest paper highlights some of our key findings.

• Sexual harassment in secondary school: Prevalence and ambiguities. A mixed methods study in Scottish schools. Sweeting et al (2021)

We adopted a reflexive approach to the iterative design process. This included an internal evaluation of the video design process; a consultative review of the Equally Safe at School (ESAS) website with stakeholders; and an evaluation of the project launch. 

The engagement tools are housed within the ESAS Intervention Hub website, and are available to anyone visiting the website, regardless of participation in the intervention. Rape Crisis Scotland has included the interactive map in their teacher training. Teachers have found the map validating of their experiences because it recognises the systemic challenges they face. Many Rape Crisis Scotland prevention workers across Scotland have been using the video as part of their “What is Sexual Violence” workshop to build young people’s understanding of how sexual comments and insults are part of a continuum of violence. Young people say it feels very relevant to their experiences. Our paper on sexual harassment in schools based on our survey data (Sweeting et al, 2022) is being used by schools to persuade their staff of the importance of taking part in ESAS.

We learned about the benefit of involving stakeholders early in the design and production of engagement tools.

For these to be compelling and useful to the target audience(s), we needed to invest sufficient time and effort in collecting stakeholders’ ideas and regular feedback.

Producing engagement tools required a lot of effort, but we found there is nothing better than to hear that people recognise themselves or their context in the storytelling.

We hope these tools will be integrated with other national resources available to schools, and that they will continue to be used by students and staff to lobby their school leadership and councils to take part in Equally Safe at School, and to prioritise reducing gender-based violence (GBV) in the school setting; And finally, that policy makers/third sector bodies will use the website and our engagement tools to raise awareness, and leverage funding and political support.  

The Equally Safe at School intervention is being rolled out across Scotland. A new evaluation phase is  being designed by the research team, and will accompany schools from autumn 2022, with the aim of showing change in key outcomes, such as young people’s trust in a school’s GBV reporting system.  

University of Glasgow MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit:

• Kirstin Mitchell
• Carolyn Blake

Rape Crisis Scotland:

• Kathryn.dawson@rapecrisisscotland.org.uk
• Laura.Wylie@rapecrisisscotland.org.uk

Summary of project from the University of Glasgow:

• Equally Safe: A Whole Schools Approach to Gender Based Violence

Project Hub:

• Equally Safe at School project hub