Piloting the Intervention Initiative at Warwick
As an introduction to the Intervention Initiative, the programme states,
"The extent of sexual harassment, sexual coercion, rape and domestic abuse in student populations across England has been revealed in evidence from crime surveys, student surveys and professionals working with students. The evidence has produced an imperative for universities to act. This resource is a response to that imperative.”
The evidence-based programme is ground-breaking in a number of ways. Using a ‘bystander’ model, and utilising social norms theory, the programme is intended to change participants’ behaviour by unlearning passive assumptions about identity, violence, and one’s own power to influence the world around them. Ultimately, the programme is designed to increase the likelihood of an intervention by the participant, whether this is an intervention into a sexist chant or into a case of on-going domestic abuse of a friend, for example. Where they have been used, bystander models have been shown to be effective in:
- Decreasing perpetration of violence, and likelihood of perpetrating violence,
- Decreasing incidences of community violence,
- Decreasing rape myth acceptance, sexist attitudes, and denial of violence as a problem,
- Increasing knowledge about violence and empathy towards rape survivors,
- Increasing confidence in intervening,
- …and increasing interventions made.
Having been funded by Public Health England, the programme is free from commercial motivation, permitting it to be consistently focused upon its end goal of changing participant behaviour, rather than to generate income. It is with this rationale in mind that in academic year 2016/17 Warwick SU embarked upon a trial of the Intervention Initiative, reaching out to and forming partnerships with two University of Warwick departments: PAIS and Law. Experienced ‘Intervention Initiative’ facilitators from the University of West England trained Warwick SU’s four facilitators to deliver the programme.
The programme itself was taught in six one-hour segments, in a part-lecture, part-seminar style with presentations, videos, role-play, group discussion, individual reflection, interactive tasks, and peer-to-peer discussion. The facilitators chose to adapt the Intervention Initiative content in places to better reflect and engage the Warwick community, whilst retaining the evidence-based nature of the programme.
At the conclusion of the programme, participants were asked to fill out a module feedback form, and were invited to attend an optional feedback session with the facilitators. To compare with the baseline taken at the commencement of the programme, participants were asked to report how confident they would be to make an intervention in two situations: ‘a banterous conversation between friends that was sexist, offensive or hurtful’, and ‘an incident with a risk of sexual violence or relationship abuse against another person’. Participants reported an average 83% confidence level intervening in the first situation at the conclusion of the programme, as compared with 62% at the commencement. Participants reported an average 84% confidence level intervening in the second situation at the conclusion of the programme, as compared with just 44% at the commencement, showing a clear improvement in participants’ confidence to intervene in situations spanning the full range of severity.
On a scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good), students ultimately rated the module overall with an average score of 4.1, with testimonials such as “It was a great experience, I found it very useful; it illuminated everyday life situations, that I have not considered to be assault before.” and “This module was extremely interesting and I have learnt a lot about the issues with domestic and sexual violence. I have learnt the appropriate interventions in different situations. I would recommend this module.” It was believed that an average score of 4.1 for a small pilot programme such as this, having never delivered the programme at Warwick before, was an extremely promising foundation on which to built.
In the 2017/18 academic year the Intervention Intiative was offered to all first year PAIS students, as part of the ongoing partnership between PAIS and the Intervention Initiative project. This allowed the project to be further refined for Warwick students, resulting in the creation of the 'Active Bystander Intervention' course.
The Active Bystander Intervention Course
On the strength of the results from the Intervention Intiiatibe pilot, the Students' Union, IATL, and the Dean of Students' Office were able to secure funding to launch the Community Values Education Programme, and its Active Bystander Intervention project.
The Active Bystander Intervention course course focuses on:
- What our community values look like in practice, and spotting the signs of unacceptable behaviours like bullying and domestic violence.
- How we identify and interpret behaviour as unacceptable, as well as understanding how people can disagree.
- Our role in building a community that embodies our values, through safe and effective interventions as an active bystander.
- The barriers to becoming an active bystander, and how we can overcome them.
- Effective intervention strategies for a wide range of scenarios, including sexual violence, harassment, and hate.
The course explores our role as active bystanders within the university community (and beyond), and equips participants with the knowledge, skills and confidence to make safe, effective interventions.
In the 2019/20 academic year the Active Bystander Intervention course was opened to registrations from students in all subjects, and at all levels of study.
Comparing pre- and post-course surveys, it was found that students reported being more likely to intervene in instances of unacceptable behaviour, such as sexual violence and harassment. They also reported stronger disagreement with significant victim-blaming myths that have an impact on likelihood to recognise behaviour as unacceptable, and reported an increased ability to recognise the signs of unacceptable behaviour, like domestic abuse.
For the 2020/21 academic year, the Active Bystander Intervention course has been scaled up to offer 350 students the opportunity to participate. An introductory workshop on active bystander intervention was also delivered to firsy year undergraduates across 20+ academic departmennts at Warwick.
If you would like any further information about the Intervention Initiative, email campaigns@warwicksu.com.