Sexual Violence Awareness Week

Throughout Sexual Violence Awareness Week (Monday 4th – Sunday 10th February), a new team of staff from Student Advice and Wellbeing Services were out and about across the University to talk to students and staff about the impact sexual violence and harassment has on individuals and communities.

The Safeguarding Champions are a team of student staff whose role is to support the University’s commitment to building safer student communities by engaging with students and staff to raise awareness of support services offered by the University and our partners and promote a culture of respect and consent to their peers.

During the week, the team visited different campus locations, taking pledges of commitment from students using the hashtag “#ItsNotOkay”. Following on from Sexual Violence Awareness Week, the team will be collating the information gathered and taking this conversation further with individuals, student groups and the wider community.

Phil Bakstad (Student Support Coordinator in SAW) commented: “This was a really successful first outing for our new Safeguarding Champions and I’m delighted that the team received such a positive reception from students across all of our campuses. We want to have meaningful conversations around the important issues surrounding sexual violence, consent and support and a key way of facilitating this is to provide our students with positive role models, to support the University’s commitment to ensuring all of our students feel safe and supported across campus and the wider city”.

For further information on the Safeguarding Champions project, please contact Phil Bakstad on P.Bakstad@ljmu.ac.uk or extension 3149