At LAWC, we support educational establishments and other community organisations working with young people through a range of expert training/ activities (covering various subjects) plus a 'Safer Streets' VAWG project. 

Expert Training:

• Workshops around ‘domestic abuse’ for young people in schools/colleges/ universities
• Workshops on Harmful Practices - forced marriage, honour-based violence, FGM - for High School and college students
• Workshops around these issues adapted for particularly vulnerable young people, e.g. those being educated by alternative providers.
• Support within further education colleges and universities, giving young women easy access to support that keeps them safe.
• Training for teachers and other school staff in domestic abuse/ Harmful Practices, including how to spot the signs, how to support a student who makes a disclosure etc.

Please contact us to discuss any other subjects you’re interested in, or other ways in which we might work together.

Young people are affected by violent, abusive and harmful relationships in so many ways.

• Around 1 in 5 children have been exposed to domestic abuse, mostly witnessing this among adults in their home.
• Over a quarter of girls aged 11 – 21 say they, or someone they know, has experienced controlling/ bullying behaviour from a partner. Just under a quarter say the same for experiences of violence from a partner.
• One in two women aged 16-21 have experienced controlling behaviour in an intimate relationship but over a third of this group admit they don’t know who to turn to for help.
• 59% of cases of forced marriage involve victims under 25.

We want the young people in Luton and Bedfordshire to be better protected from such adverse experiences - both as children and as they grow into adulthood. And, we want those who do experience (or are at risk of) abuse or Harmful Practices to understand how to seek help and for that help to be truly effective in keeping them safe.

To achieve this, our schools, colleges, universities and other youth settings must also be places where young people can learn about and understand these issues better, while also knowing what to do if they, or someone they know, is in need of support.

Our team at LAWC have designed and developed the series of training/ workshop activities mentioned above especially for this purpose.

Our team is highly experienced at facilitating this kind of training and already support many of the High Schools and colleges of further education in Luton.

Cost

Because we realise how important this work is, many of the training/ workshops we provide to educational settings are free of charge. However, as a small organisation with limited capacity, we do have to make a charge for some of our more advanced and intensive training services.

We try our best to make costs as affordable as possible and are happy to quote for a programme of work that meets your needs.

Find out more

Please send a brief summary of the type of training/ workshops you are interested in to [email protected]

Safer Streets:

LAWC has been delivering a ‘Safer Streets’ project in partnership with the Bedfordshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner since 2022.

The aim of this project is to raise awareness of public sexual harassment (PSH) with young people across Luton and Bedfordshire with the ultimate aim of reducing violence against women and girls (VAWG) in public spaces and increasing feelings of safety for women and girls. 

Using two specialist young people’s workers, LAWC has been delivering assemblies and training sessions in schools, colleges, Universities and other community-based locations. As well as raising awareness of the behaviours that constitute PSH, LAWC has been building a lasting legacy with this work by explaining to the young people how to report incidences of PSH and how to be an active bystander to tackle PSH in our county. 

So far, we’ve reached over 17,000 young people from our community with this work and the response has been amazing!

“The presentation was consummately delivered and was pitched at our students with exactly the right balance and content. The LAWC staff ‘worked the room’ that produced exciting interactions, fantastic responses and knowledgeable comments from the student audience. The school staff have also commented on how informative your presentation was and that they would like to see more opportunities to support you with your campaign.”

School participating in Safer Streets

Next steps

After such a successful start, LAWC has been recommissioned to continue this important work up until the end of March 2025. Taking on board some feedback from our partner schools and clubs, for this next stage of the project we are:

• Targeting younger age groups (not just Year 9 and upwards). Now, our VAWG workshops have been modified to be age-appropriate for years 5-8.
• Focusing on more in-depth and earlier interventions to shape pro-social attitudes of VAWG before negative and harmful entrenched views are formed. 
• Taking steps to encourage young boys and teens to become male allies and promote positive behaviour across the county.
• Targeting the adults who are key influencers in a child’s life to learn these messages and model pro-social behaviour. Our teacher training offer includes building knowledge, understanding and confidence to tackle VAWG within schools while our parenting webinars focus on enabling parents to feel more confident raising their sons or daughters and discussing the challenges they face with them (including issues around VAWG). See our What’s On page for upcoming webinars.
• Providing Bedfordshire’s Watch scheme volunteers with training to be able to identify VAWG and know how to intervene safely.

Find out more

To find out more about our Safer Streets project or book sessions, please email Jo Jupp @ [email protected].

Read more about VAWG and why we’re making challenging this a core part of our work on our What We Do page.