Today, as the 16 Days of Activism campaign draws to a close, I want to mark it with a focus on one of our commissioned services, STARS Dorset (Sexual Trauma and Recovery Services). STARS is a pan-Dorset charity that offers one to one support, free of charge, for anyone of any age or gender who lives, works, or studies in Dorset and has experienced any form of sexual violence at any time in their life.

Alongside the important work STARS carry out as part of this commission, the charity also benefited from a portion of the Safer Streets funding. This funding has been put towards Consent Education and prevention strategies. The Engagement Team delivers education to children, young people and adults in different settings such as pre-school, school, college, University and in the local community focusing on consent, healthy relationships and bystander interventions.

Today, I want to hand over to the team at STARS to talk about two important areas of their work – the role of an ISVA (Independent Sexual Violence Advisor) and the Alcohol and Consent Training Team.

What do ISVAs do?

“ISVA’s offer emotional and practical support to any survivor of sexual violence, with the only criteria is that you live, work or study within Dorset.

“Alongside advocacy, the biggest part of our role is supporting people at court. We do pre-trial visits, explain what special measures are available to them and support them in person while they’re giving evidence. Court can feel like an intimidating place, so it’s good for our clients to know that they have someone in their corner. It’s an alien environment, so it’s our job to show them they’re not alone and to help them feel safe.

“Currently, we have a team of seven adult ISVAs and four Children and young people ISVA’s at STARS who are a mixture of full and part-time, each handling a caseload of between 30 and 45 clients. Within this team, our ISVAs have specialisms including working with people with learning disabilities, male clients, older people, and we’ve recently introduced another working alongside the police with sex workers.

“These roles are important as fundamentally we are empowering the victim to have a voice because they've not had that voice previously. I always say to clients that they’ve been in a situation where they weren't in control and my support is all about putting them back in the driving seat and giving them back that control.

“The criminal justice system is a challenging environment and can be frustrating and sometimes devastating for a client. The process is not instantaneous by any means and some victims will not get the result or outcome they deserve and that can be really difficult to navigate and deal with.

“If there are people out there who want to talk to us, my biggest advice would be to pick up the phone and give us a call. We're not here to pressurise anyone into reporting. We support people who want to explore their reporting options. Or you don't only have the option to report to the police, you can also report anonymously.

“We will believe you and you will be heard.”

Engagement Team

Stephanie Lee, Engagement Team Leader at STARS Dorset: “We have three people in our Engagement Team in STARS, who all carry out different aspects of work.

“Our Harmful Sexual Behaviour Project Worker is working alongside key partners to create a framework of how we will work to identify and put interventions in place for issues around harmful sexual behaviour and problematic sexualised behaviour.

“Then we have our Single Point of Contact college worker in Bournemouth and Poole College, whose role is offering education around consent. She is based within the wellbeing team and connects with the engagement and inclusion team, doing things like daily pop-ups, daily drop-ins for staff and students if they've got any concerns as well as hosting campaigns including 16 Days of activism where the students have been making pledges about how they'll be supportive bystanders. It's about creating more spaces where they can ask questions, be met with compassion and understanding and curiosity rather than judgement. This role also looks at dispelling some of the myths and debunking some societal views. A lot of work goes into creating those relationships with staff and students and engaging in a creative way for teenage boys and girls.

“Then, our consent engagement worker works with universities and preschools.

Working across all University sites (BU, AUB, HSU), we do our weekly drop in where we have one-to-one sessions available, but there are also activities and interactive education resources happening all the time in which we work closely with the University to ensure we’re responding to local and national concerns, trends and topics they’re seeing arise.

“With the preschools, we offer sessions with Pantosaurus, focusing on preventing child sexual abuse. The team also goes into schools, sometimes alongside the police to talk about the consequences of harmful sexual behaviour, where it can lead and the impact, alongside different activities around consent to open those important conversations. We try to allow space for young people to be curious in their consent education, we welcome questions and debates to gain clarity.

“Our work is very well received, we’re often welcomed with open arms, partly down to our approach. Most places have not seen education like this before or the topic spoken about in this way. We try not to feed into the fear, we bring compassion, curiosity, and open discussion.

“Work around consent is not just about slogans and soundbites – it’s far more complex and nuanced which is why our approach has such a positive impact. What we’re doing at STARS in the Engagement Team has a crucial part to play in tackling Violence Against Women and Girls. But society has a much bigger part; we all have a responsibility. Prevention, education, and early education around emotional intelligence is fundamental. Learning about consent from an early age is vital, and continuing those conversations throughout our lives is integral. One lesson or discussion may not solve these issues; it is up to all of us to continue having these discussions and to create safe environments to do so throughout our lives.”

Thanks to STARS for their ongoing hard work in this area. Steph is right, we all have a responsibility to tackle VAWG; it is not just up to women to find different ways to stay safe. I thank everyone in Dorset who is working to change attitudes and make a difference where VAWG is concerned. We may not be able to make changes overnight, but together we can all play our part to help those around us, and that can have a big impact. I am committed to working with any group that wants to make Dorset a safer place for women and girls. Their safety is, and will remain, a key priority for me, my office and all partners across the county.

David Sidwick

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner