At Leeway, we believe that educating young people about the importance of healthy relationships is a key part of tackling domestic abuse. We know that young people face a lot of pressure from peers and social media, which can shape their views of relationships and how they should be acting in them.
Our important work across schools, colleges and other education settings aims to support them to make informed choices around their own relationships, whilst highlighting the types of behaviours that might be considered unhealthy.
There have been increased calls for services like Leeway’s to be rolled out across the country, following research highlighting a lack of knowledge around these important topics.
How Leeway is Supporting Young People
Leeway’s Healthy Relationship service is delivering vital awareness sessions to children and young people with the hope of breaking the cycle of domestic abuse.
The service, funded by Norfolk County Council, aims to educate young people across the county around the importance of healthy relationships, as well as providing advice and guidance for those that are experiencing domestic abuse.
It is hoped that the preventative work will benefit children and young people in adulthood by helping them to spot and understand the signs of an unhealthy relationship and know where to go for help and support.
As well as being able to understand behaviours such as “love bombing” and “gaslighting”, the service aims to get young people to consider their behaviour in relationships and recognise the impact that this can have.
The service has already been working with schools and colleges across the county, achieving positive outcomes, with all students able to identify healthy and unhealthy behaviours in relationships. Around 90% of students also felt an increase in confidence to disclose bullying or abuse, following sessions with Leeway.
As well as delivering sessions for students, we also deliver webinars to professionals, supporting them to deliver high-quality sessions in their school or education setting.
The National Picture
Nationally, there have been calls for increased education in schools around relationships for young people, following research conducted by the Youth Endowment Fund. Their recent survey indicated that up to 49% of young people had experienced violent or controlling behaviour from their partner.
The research asked 10,000 young people aged between 13 and 17 years old about their experiences of relationships, but also the education that they had received around this. It found that around three quarters of students surveyed had received education around dating and relationships, but only 40% had lessons around the importance of healthy relationships.
There are also concerns that young people’s attitudes towards relationships are being shaped and influenced by content that they are seeing online. A third of all teenage children that were surveyed said that they've seen violence against women and girls being promoted online.
This only reiterates the need for increased education around healthy relationships, which will help to challenge attitudes towards women that are shaped by social media.
You can find out more about Leeway’s important work in this area by visiting our dedicated healthy relationship web pages.
