Briefing

Researchers from the Safer Young Lives Research Centre at the University of Bedfordshire organised and facilitated two online workshops as part of the ‘Changing practice: prioritising participation in actions to address child sexual abuse project’.

The first of these brought together representatives from international organisations and international networks of NGOs working to address childhood sexual violence and related issues. The second workshop assembled representatives from funders and donor intermediaries supporting work on childhood sexual violence.

The workshops shared learning from recent research exploring the value of, and complexities involved in, supporting the participation of young survivors in developing and designing actions that effectively address child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The briefing summarises some of the key discussion points that were shared across the two workshops and suggests areas for further conversation. In sharing these reflections, we hope to help organisations and groups to reflect upon their own work and potential ways to strengthen and improve the ethical, meaningful and contextual involvement of young survivors in this field in the future.

The Our Voices University Network (OVUN) was established to facilitate links between academics around the world in order to develop and share knowledge about the prevention of and response to child sexual abuse and exploitation.

This briefing shares learning from the PhD student forum sessions that were held as part of OVUN. The briefing reflects what forum members have shared about:

• the tensions and challenges of doing doctoral research on child sexual abuse and exploitation (or related topics/other forms of harm)

• what they have valued about the forum

• what support needs they have which are not being met

It is hoped that the learning captured in this briefing will be of use to other PhD researchers and supervisors who are undertaking or supporting work in this field.

This third briefing paper summarises key points arising from the University Network's most recent webinar which explored ‘Ethical considerations for universities working with children challenging sexual violence against children’. This briefing also shares progress on the proposed University Framework and information on ' Get on the Map!' an effort to map active Network members.

This second briefing is based on our first international university network webinar, held in July 2019 with The End Violence Against Children Global Partnership. It provides a recap of presentations from speakers, key discussion points from the Q&A session with participants and signposts to resources. 

This briefing paper summarises initial findings from a survey designed to map universities and organisations working on challenging sexual violence against children (SVAC). The survey informs the development of a new university network which will capture and promote participatory activities undertaken by universities around the world to challenge SVAC by supporting children to be co-determiners of research agendas, activities, and teaching and curriculum materials.