Would you step in?

Inspired and adapted from the activity ‘A toolbox of intervention strategies’ from the manual “GEAR against IPV”. Booklet III: Teacher’s Manual. (Rev. ed.). Athens: European Anti-Violence Network

Duration of activity: 60 min

Learning objectives:

Help young people explore how they can intervene when witnessing incidences of sexual and gender-based violence.
Raise awareness on our responsibility as bystanders and how important it is not to stay silent
Identify specific techniques for challenging peers’ attitudes and behaviours that support SGBV

Materials needed:

Flipchart paper, markers
Copies of the scenarios for each group

Step by step process of the activity:

Start by asking young people to mention whether they think it is easy or difficult to intervene when they witness an incidence of SGBV. (5-10 min)
- What may hold them back? What may they be concerned about?
- What can help them feel more confident to make an intervention?
Start with the following introduction: One of the best ways to overcome the concerns and fears that keep us silent when we witness an incidence of gender-based violence is to have a toolbox of strategies on hand for intervening when the situation arises. That way, we don’t have to think so much about what to do, whether to do it, when to do it, and so on as we’ll be a little bit more prepared.
Divide the group into 6 smaller groups. If you choose to use less than 6 scenarios, divide the group into small groups equal to the number of the scenarios that will be used.
Explain that you will give out a scenario to each group where an intervention is called for. Ask young people to imagine what they would have done in these situations and to assume that even though the characters in the scenarios may not represent their close friends, they are still acquaintances. Also give out the 2^nd worksheet where they can record their interventions.
The groups have about 15 minutes to discuss the scenarios and to answer the questions underneath each story.
As the groups are working on the task, go around the groups and help out, prompt the group with questions to provide food for thought or just observe what is going on.
Once the groups complete their discussion, go back to plenary and ask representatives from each group (or one person from each group) to report on their discussions. (15 minutes)
Discuss the possible strategies that young people came up with, with the plenary. The focus should be on generating a list of concrete intervention strategies that everyone could use, not only for incidents similar with the one discussed, but also for a variety of situations.
When discussing the strategies that each group comes up with, it is possible that a lot of them will overlap the strategies described in the theoretical section 14.1 (How to support a friend who is experiencing abuse and How can you react as a bystander). You can use the lists in these sections to help you to group young people’s responses into concrete suggestions. You can prompt the groups to explain what they mean with their recommendation and ask them whether they find any commonalities with other suggestions already discussed, so as they can be grouped together. (15 -20 min)
In the end prompt young people to discuss other strategies that may not have been mentioned
Make sure you have recorded all possible strategies recommended by young people and put them together in ‘one toolbox’ – You can place the flipcharts with the recommendations under a heading ‘Toolbox of intervention strategies’ and display them in a visible place in the room.

Facilitation questions for reflection and debriefing: (5-10 min)

How do you feel looking at the ‘toolbox’ we created?
Do you think it is something that you can use?
Becoming more aware of things you could do/say when you witness an incidence of SGBV, do you feel more confident to intervene? Or is it something that is still difficult?

Take home messages and activity wrap up:

As things currently stand, the voices/actions which sustain SGBV violence are both more numerous and louder than those voices/actions standing up against it. That is why it is so important to confront attitudes, behaviours, assumptions, and language that contribute to a climate of violence against women and people with diversity in SOGIESC.

You all have generated a great list of strategies for challenging other people’s harmful language, attitudes, and actions. Hopefully, now you feel more prepared to speak up when the situation calls for it. The truth is that it is always difficult to step up and take action. It isn’t easy to challenge someone for using violence against someone or for degrading someone as it could be dangerous, embarrassing (if you’re laughed at or not taken seriously) or could cause fear of losing the person’s friendship.

Remember that your comfort will increase the more you practice speaking up. It is also important to remember that despite all your willingness to help, miracles may not happen straight away. There is no perfect intervention, and there are no instant conversions. However, in its own accord, every intervention is a success, because every time we speak out, we make the world a safer place, giving out the message that violence and violation of human/sexual rights should not be tolerated. Even though it is not easy to intervene, it is something that we must do. Silence is not an option because it gives the impression that the abusive behaviour is condoned or even acceptable.

Another important thing to remember when you want to react to an abusive/discriminatory/harmful incidence, is that your own safety should always be considered first. When confronting a person exercising violence, it is important to avoid engaging in any type of violence with that person. If the situation does not seem safe, or if it seems likely that if you say something it will result in more violence, then it may be better to let a comment or action go unchallenged and try to find a way to address it at a later time. At the same time, being concerned about another person’s reaction is not an excuse for doing nothing. Being aware of your fears does not make it okay to give in to them. On the contrary, it allows you to try to have control over your fears so that they won’t paralyze you when you need to speak out. A useful intervention in these cases is to ‘gang up’ with like-minded people who also want to help or you bring in ‘outside’ support such as other friends, a trusting adult who could help, the police etc.

Tips for facilitators:

This activity specifically asks young people to imagine intervening in circumstances where they are used to remaining silent, thus there may be some resistance to developing strategies for intervention. Sometimes, young people will resist developing strategies by explaining that if they found themselves in such a situation, they wouldn’t intervene. Respond by asking them to think hypothetically. What could they say that might make a difference?

Tips for adapting the activity and follow up:

Both the scenarios and the strategies proposed may need to be adapted in order to be relevant to local contexts. You could also add more scenarios in cases where you’d like to address additional issues in relation to SGBV.

Adapting the activity for online implementation

● You can work on the worksheets in plenary by presenting them on shared screen or participants can work on them in small groups in breakout rooms. It is easier if you combine the worksheets into one, having both the scenario and the questions in one place (see sample below)

● To further engage participants you can run a short vote/poll/quiz to test whether they would intervene in this scenario or not

● You can also turn this activity entirely into an online quiz and hold a short discussion after each scenario has been presented, using the questions underneath each scenario to guide you. When you’re setting up the quiz, please remember to pre-program enough time to allow participants to read the scenario properly and take in the required information.

● If you opt for creating an online quiz, you can also incorporate some of the reflection questions (for instance ‘for what reasons would someone not intervene in this situation’ or ‘for what reasons would someone intervene in this situation’) to make the discussion more interactive (see some pictures of a sample quiz below)