The Lifecentre Education Programme
According to the NSPCC, 20% of children under the age of 16 experience some form of sexual abuse. Last year in West Sussex nearly a third of all reported serious sexual offences were committed on people aged between 14-17. These statistics are unsettling – they indicate that many of the students in our classes are battling with the ongoing effects of sexual abuse even as we try to teach them.
Lifecentre workshops aim to raise awareness
of issues surrounding unwanted sex and to
provide links to services designed specifically
to help Under 18s.
Beyond this, the pressure on our students
is immense. They are encouraged to enter
sexual relationships by the TV, magazines
and each other; they share a common
misconception that everyone is having
sex and that there is something wrong
with them if they are not. Young people
are having sex simply because they think everyone else is doing it.
The Lifecentre Education Programme seeks to lift the lid on the pressure by busting the myths surrounding sex and young people, informing them of their legal rights within relationships and providing them with strategies to create and hold their personal boundaries. Lifecentre promotes the importance of marriage and stable, loving relationships and provides the opportunity for students to consider how to stay safe, both physically and emotionally, within those relationships.
Lifecentre Workshops are designed to meet the requirements of the PSHE curriculum and provide an age appropriate, engaging and interactive way of exploring a serious and difficult topic whilst giving students the opportunity to ask some difficult questions. Every workshop finishes with an introduction to the support that Lifecentre offers if the issues raised within the workshop have affected them.
Topics covered include:
· Relationships and Technology
· The Myths and Facts of Unwanted Sex
· Friendship
· Relationship Boundaries
“We might not want to think young people in our school need to hear this, but they do. These workshops provide an essential forum for young people who might otherwise slip the net and never talk”
|