Heading up our mission to educate young people and spread awareness about the impact of sexual violence, is SARAC’s Young Person’s Service Lead Caroline Fotheringham. As a part of ourcharity’s mission, Caroline works in educational settings such as schools and colleges in Burton Upon Trent and the surrounding areas, with the aim to use education to reduce the likelihood of young people committing crimes of sexual abuse, to change behaviours and perceptions regarding sexual assault, as well as making young people aware that support is available.
Caroline spoke about the role SARAC plays in bringing about awareness and education on the topic of sexual violence saying, “In the education sessions I run at schools and college I talk about violence towards women and men, I clearly show statistics and talk about what this means to them and discuss issues they face in their life with regards to sexualised behaviour, attitudes and similar. I truly believe by doing this we are opening up conversations, sparking debate and allowing these young people to have a voice – thereby making them more in control of the choices they make and hopefully safer in the long run.”
We have two dedicated Young Person’s Counsellors, integrative counsellor Liz McDermott, and masters student Ryan Selby who is training to become a qualified psychotherapist. The pair support SARAC’s mission to bring about awareness and educate young people in order to offer the support needed to victims and to reduce the likelihood of offenders in the future through the use of education.
Caroline states, “If we can start educating from a young age and teaching our youngsters about sexual violence we can hopefully begin to change the narrative and make young people realise they play a vital role in improving the society we live in.” This sentiment reflects the aim of SARAC which is to live in a world free from sexual violence.
