The Critical Friends’ network had been revitalized over 2023 through the tireless efforts of Yihan Li Health Promotion Officer at Women’s Health in the South East. During this time, Yihan recruited a number of new potential critical friends. Before we were able to link them with schools, the protocol was to train them in family violence 101, and intersectional gender equality.
This report evaluates the initial training on family violence and intersectional gender equality provided to the new group of prospective Critical Friends. The training session, held online by Heidi Waterson and Yihan Li, took place on Wednesday 10 April 2024, with 19 people.
Of the 19 people who attended the training session, 10 people (80% women, 20% men) completed the pre-session survey.
The training session led to significant improvements in participants’ understanding of family violence, its forms, drivers, and the link with gender inequality. Post-training, there was a marked increase in participants rating their understanding as ‘very high,’ which was largely sustained in the follow-up period.
Participants’ understanding of the different forms of family violence and the reasons behind it improved significantly, with all rating their understanding as ‘high’ or ‘very high’ after the training.
Participants were keen to be matched with schools and to have “future training sessions that discuss the prevention of family violence in education settings at a more advanced level.”
The participants would like to hear more case studies and examples of how Critical Friends have supported the Respectful Relationships program in schools.