Awareness & Education

Workshops

Active* Consent | Introduction to Consent

This Active* Consent Introduction to Consent is designed for third-level students, primarily to be embedded into orientation programmes & introduction sessions.

Since 2020, over 30,000 students across Ireland and Northern Ireland have engaged with this workshop. To date at the University of Galway all incoming first years are offered the 30 Minute Active* Consent workshop in their Orientation. At no point during the workshop is anyone asked to share personal experiences.

The Active* Consent workshop provides a sex-positive space to explore the nuances of sexual consent, including:

• What consent and non-consent look like
• Relevant laws on consent and sexual violence
• Irish data on young people's views on consent, social
• norms, etc.
• Skills for mutually consensual, mutually enjoyable and safe sexual experiences for them and their partner, if and when they ever choose to become intimate with someone else.

Duration: 30 minutes

Target Audience ☑ Students ☒ Staff

☑Facilitator Training Available

☑No max audience size

Active* Consent | Consent Workshop

This Active* Consent Workshop provides a sex- positive space for participants to explore the nuances of sexual consent.

In this workshop, participants learn more about:

• What consent and non-consent look like
• Relevant laws on consent and sexual violence Image-based sexual abuse
• The views of their peers on social norms
• How to communicate about consent

This is an interactive workshop with individual and small group discussions exploring consent through real-life stories, and discussing the nuances of sexual consent.

At no point is anyone asked to share personal experiences.

This workshop was evaluated in a Randomised Control Trial and is continually updated based on participant feedback to ensure it remains relevant, engaging, useful and reflects legal and societal changes in the area of sexual consent and sexual violence. This workshop has been embedded into some academic timetables for undergraduates - eg Year 1 Medicine students.

Duration: 1.5 Hours 

Target Audience ☑ Students ☒ Staff

☑Facilitator Training Available

Max audience size: 30

Active* Consent | Digital Intimacy Workshop

Digital intimacy and sending nudes can often be part of modern relationships - so it's a good idea to find out how to communicate and share intimate stuff in safe/ethical/legal ways. The Active* Consent Digital Intimacy workshop empowers higher education students with information and skills to navigate digital intimacy in a consensual way, while also highlighting the challenges that digital intimacy can pose.

The workshop explores:

• The benefits and challenges of digital intimacy (such as sexting and sending nudes)
• Image-based sexual abuse, aka IBSA (and why we don't call it "revenge porn")
• Irish laws around IBSA
• How to identify catfishing
• How to be an Active* Bystander online
• Support services and helplines

At no point during the workshop is anyone asked to share personal experiences.

Duration: 2 Hours 

Target Audience ☑ Students ☒ Staff

☑Facilitator Training Available

Max audience size: 30

Active* Consent | Consent & Bystander Workshop [PostGraduate]

The Active*Consent Postgraduate Workshop creates an interactive space for postgraduate students to learn more about consent, sexual violence and bystander intervention.  Through group discussions, short stories and participatory exercises, the workshop also broaches topics such as victim blaming, power structures, sexual harassment and how to access support. The workshop is data-driven, with each activity and group discussion based on ongoing research by the Active*Consent team.

Participants can expect to gain from the workshop an increased knowledge of consent literacy, bystander intervention tactics, and the way sexual scripts can influence our behaviour. At no point during the workshop is anyone asked to share personal experiences.

Duration: 2 Hours 

Target Audience ☑ Students ☒ Staff

☑Facilitator Training Available

Max audience size: 30

Training

First Point of Contact - Disclosure Management Training with Galway Rape Crisis Centre

The First Point of Contact programme, in partnership with the Galway Rape Crisis Centre and Active* Consent, is a new approach to training staff members and students in the communication and interpersonal skills for providing the initial support and signposting of someone who has experienced sexual violence or harassment.

Our goal is for staff & students to have access to informal points of support throughout the academic departments, administrative and support services, and student leadership.

 People trained in First Point of Contact will feel more confident in signposting others to appropriate professional supports, having an initial supportive conversation with someone affected by sexual violence or harassment, and will become part of an ongoing network of likeminded members of the university community who express our shared values of respect and support.

The programme covers the following areas:

• The types of sexual violence and harassment experienced by students and staff in the higher education setting.
• The knowledge and skills that underpin effective responses to informal disclosures that take place in higher education.
• Exploring the role of staff and students in culture change and organisational development, to help generate conditions conducive to help seeking, greater awareness, and confidence in accessing supports.

Duration: 12 Hours [4x 3hrs session in person]

Target Audience: ☑ Student Leaders [e.g Class Reps, Societies, Clubs, Student activists] ☑ Staff

Max participant group size - 20

Facilitator Training | Active* Consent Workshops

Training is offered to staff and student leaders to give them the information, skills and support they will need to facilitate consent workshops on campus.

The training aims to give participants confidence and competence to roll-out workshops by:

• sharing insights into the context in which students are exploring and expressing their sexuality; participate in the workshop to gain an insight into what it involves for students;
• discussion of any challenges or worries they may have;
• as well as technological and facilitation skills required for the workshop.

This training is approximately 3 hours and can be facilitated by the Active* Consent team.

Duration 3 Hours

Target Audience: ☑ Staff ☑ Student leaders [eg Class Reps]

☑No max audience size

Campus Consent Champion Training

The Consent Ambassador Training aims to build confidence and competence to roll-out sexual consent-related interventions and campaigns on campus. This interactive and informative session will provide the skills and knowledge to become a consent ambassador for your institution.

The training includes:

• Overview of Active* Consent ethos, insights and resources
• Participation in the in-person workshop
• Exploration of facilitation skills and open discussion of challenges
• to rolling out workshops and campaigns

Participants will gain:

• An understanding of the context in which relationships and sexuality are being explored and expressed by young people
• How to access local and national support services for sexual violence and harassment
• How to become an agent for positive change on your campus as a campus consent champion.

Duration: 5hours [2x 2.5hr sessions]

Target Audience ☑ Student Leaders [e.g Class Reps, Societies, Clubs, Student activists] ☑ Staff

Max participant group size - 30

In collaboration with the ALIVE Volunteering programme.

Continuing Professional Development Training

Consent, Sexual Violence and Harassment: Practitioner Skills & Practice

10 ECTS Level 9 Micro-Credential Module

Delivered by: The Active* Consent programme (School of Psychology & Discipline of Drama & Theatre Studies at University of Galway), with contributors including Galway Rape Crisis Centre and others.
Contact email for queries: eva.obyrne@universityofgalway.ie

Consent, Sexual Violence and Harassment: Practitioner Skills and Practice is a postgraduate micro-credential module.
Successful completion results in the award of 10 ECTS at Level 9, accredited through the University of Galway. The module is open to educators and professionals in a variety of fields, including student services, college administration, counselling and wellbeing, academic programme management and research, and agencies / organisations relevant to education and research. While the content will specifically target the education and postprimary sectors, we also welcome participants who are working in areas such as youth work, community organisations, the Defence Forces, An Garda Síochána, etc. 

Sexual consent, sexual violence and harassment (SVH) are critical issues in educational settings. This module equips participants to design and support student engagement and organisational development, through coverage of areas such as:

• Critical understanding of consent and SVH.
• Designing, implementing, supporting and evaluating consent and SVH programmes.
• Skills for training, workshop facilitation, collaboration and group work.
• Policy, guidelines, and frameworks.
• Principles of organisational culture change.
• Communication/interpersonal skills.
• Interpersonal skills to support receiving a disclosure.

The module covers three main topic areas:

• Designing, supporting, and evaluating education and development programmes on consent, sexual violence and harassment for students and staff.
• Supporting organisational change through staff development, training in receiving disclosures, and acting as a resource for organisational culture and climate change.
• Developing policies and best practice to underpin institutional and procedural change. The module is led by the Active* Consent programme.

The module delivery is a partnership between Active* Consent and Galway Rape Crisis Centre, drawing on the expertise and experience of each partner to deliver a unique learning experience. The Active* Consent team will coordinate the module and participants will be registered as postgraduate students with the University of Galway for a 10 ECTS module.

Module fees and eligibility

The fee for the module is €500.00. The following subsidies are available (subject to meeting the minimum requirements for participation):
1. €250 subsidy through the HCI fee subsidy scheme – open to all applicants. There is a fixed
number of subsidies available; these will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.
2. 100% subsidy (fees fully covered) for all applicants currently working in the FET ETBI
sector.

The requirements for participation are:
• Possessing a degree of Level 8 or above (or an equivalent level of relevant experience).
• Currently engaged in a relevant setting where there is an opportunity to engage in review and planning of initiatives relevant to the ‘Consent Framework’ or similar initiatives on consent / SVH.
• Sufficient workplace support and current personal preparedness to participate fully in the module.
• Availability to attend all 6 online sessions and the in-person session at the University of Galway.

Duration: 24 Hours [6x 3hrs Online, 1x 6hrs in Person]

Target Audience: ☑ Staff ☑ Student leaders [eg Class Reps]

Max 20 participants.

Applications can be made by filling out the following form: https://forms.office.com/e/gGGYg8yAGJ
The final deadline for applications is the 18th of September 2024 at 5pm