Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Tayside women launch national campaign to tackle abuse
A CAMPAIGN to tackle peer sexual abuse and harassment has been launched across Scotland by young women in Tayside.
Young Women Know began with the Oor Fierce Girls, Bold Girls Ken and Brave Lassies Blether projects, which focused on young women creating resources on healthy relationships, safe spaces and consent.
Locally, the young women hosted events at the V&A, Perth Art Gallery and Montrose Football Club.
Following the success of these local campaigns over the past four years – supported by Angus, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City councils – the Scottish Government’s Delivering Equally Safe fund has been extended to rollout the work nationally.
Seven new Young Women Know champions have been appointed to lead the new national roll-out of the campaign alongside some of the young women who led the Tayside campaigns.
They will host workshops in schools, colleges and youth groups to share the co-designed resources and raise awareness of what a healthy relationship looks and feels like.
An event was held at the Scottish Parliament this week to celebrate the extension of Young Women Know from Tayside to the rest of Scotland.
Ashley Henderson, who has been involved with Oor Fierce Girls from the beginning, was “thrilled” to be chairing the parliament event.
The 19-year-old Dundonian is now studying English and journalism at Strathclyde University.
She said: “I jumped at the chance to be involved in a campaign to encourage healthy relationships. It’s a cause that has always been and still is very close to my heart.
“It was such an honour to be asked to chair, because I feel so passionately about this and can talk about it for hours.
“Being involved with Young Women Know and the NSPCC has made me gain way more confidence and helped me to get into university.
“Before I joined, I was a terrible public speaker and now I can do TV interviews with journalists I’ve never met before and speak in front of large audiences!
“This has been such a big part of my life, so I plan to stay involved with the roll-out of the national campaign in Glasgow.”
Carla Malseed, NSPCC Scotland local campaigns officer, said: “We launched this during the pandemic when everything was online, so it’s all changed dramatically since then.
“One thing that hasn’t changed is how confident and articulate the young people are and the high standard of their work. It has been incredible to see what they have achieved.
“Getting to this stage is amazing. It’s nice to see so many of the young people grow in confidence.
“I’ve been completely blown away by how much they have been able to do, how confident and knowledgeable they have been and how well they have worked together to go out and deliver change.
“They have never been
frightened to have uncomfortable conversations within school settings and with politicians.
“It’s so exciting to see the campaign being rolled out nationally now. We have some strong messages from these young people and brilliant resources and this next stage will be about testing these and finding out what works best across Scotland.”
Jenni Snell, chief executive of The Young Women’s Movement, said: “Peer sexual abuse and harassment continues to harm young women and girls’ lives across Scotland.
“Working with young women to lead the campaign development and delivery has been pivotal to ensuring that the content is engaging, relevant and impactful.
“The roll-out of the campaign by the Young Women Know champions will enable us to reach a wider audience of young people, parents and educators to effectively tackle this issue and create a safer Scotland for young women and girls.”