Throughout spring 2017, Unblurred Lines Theatre Company has been running workshops with groups of year 10’s.
We have been working with our new ‘Introduction Workshop’ session plan which has been successful. This particular session plan teaches 15 year olds about sexual consent, sexual harassment, coercive relationships and friendships, technology safety and the laws that surround all these key topics.
Data Collection
We have been using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collecting to help us begin to understand the immediate impact that the session may have on the participants. We ask the participants to fill out a ‘pre session feedback form’ where they circle the number corresponding to their understanding of a key theme or word. Through doing this we were able to establish in one session for example;
- 92% of students either strongly disagreed, disagreed, or were not sure with the statement: “I understand the meaning of coercive relationships.”
- During reflective questions at the end, where we then asked what they learnt in the session, nearly 80% of the participants replied with varying statements concluding that they had developed a better understanding of the concept of coercive relationships.
- We were happy to see that 84% of the participants in this particular session either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I know who I can speak to if I have any concerns about my safety.” However, during the session we still have a discussion about adults we can trust as well as send out signposting to different charities and helplines in our post-session pack.
- We were also pleased to know that 84% of students in the session either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I understand the law behind consent.” We make sure to reiterate the laws behind sexual consent multiple times throughout our sessions as well as website links in our post-session pack.
(Stats taken from session on 26 April 2017, Year 10s)
In another session with a separate group we also found that again;
- 92% of the students also disagreed, strongly disagreed, or were not sure for the statement “I understand the meaning of coercive relationships.
- During the reflection at the end, we found that 73% of the students had various responses of how they now have a better understanding of the word “consent” and what “coercive relationship means” when asked what they learnt in the session.
- Again, reasuuringly, approximately 80% of the participants either agreed or strongly agreed when given the statement “I know who I can speak to if I have any concerns about my safety.”
(Stats taken from session on 10 May 2017, Year 10s)
We as artistic directors were extremely pleased to see the young people being so open in the sessions and were happy to explicitly express when they did not understand something or were unsure on the laws surrounding a certain topic. We as experienced facilitators are aware that many young people may find the topics we work with challenging to discuss. However we also feel even more strongley that this kind of work is more important than ever.