By Eniola Amadu
Peterborough Women’s Aid has begun anti-misogyny talks in schools to educate students on how to recognise toxic behaviours in relationships.
This comes after the government’s pledge to combat negative behaviours and halve violence towards women and girls within a decade.
The charity which is an organisation supporting domestic abuse victims said it has been invited into schools across Cambridgeshire to help tackle misogynistic content spreading on social media.
According to the charity’s executive officer, Mandy Geraghty she stated that “If we can show what a healthy relationship looks like, we won’t have so many problems in the future.”
She added that “[The schools] were very concerned about the influence of social media on young people’s beliefs about the roles of men and women and boys and girls.”
Stating their commitment to educating children and young ones on toxic behaviors, she said “We were really keen to do this prevention work because this is where it’s starting.
“It’s about talking to children [and] young people about what their issues are, but making sure they know how to challenge and also they know where to find support.”
Following a donation received by the charity from a local organisation, the charity noted it wishes to conduct more sessions in schools in the next two years.
A session for students in the age range of 15 and 16 was conducted at Hinchinbrooke School to promote conversations about behaviours in relationships.
The school’s head of year 11, Carla Sheldon expressed her interest in the program saying “The workshops have been so valuable, I think as a school we’ve really tried to tackle this quickly and make sure that our students feel that they have all the information but also have the support in place, so that if they need help they now know exactly where they can get it.”
The school’s associate principal, Femi Solano revealed its plans to initiate a fresh project on toxic behaviours in relationships to strengthen support for staff and students.
“It can go to really dangerous lengths,” she revealed, saying “I think that’s why we have highlighted it and think it should be a whole school initiative as supposed to just a selection of students.”
She added that “it’s about educating our staff and students about misogyny, the impact of misogyny in our community and allowing our school culture to move forward respectfully.”
