Training of peer educators & the role of support people
To facilitate a quality project the peer educators were selected through an interview process and attended training before entering a classroom. It was important for the project that these young women were equipped with more than an understanding of the program material.
The peer educators undertook training that gave them a holistic understanding of violence in relationships, a strong understanding of the projects aims and background, an understanding of the diverse community of women we would address and how to ensure the safety of themselves and the young female participants.
The peer educators attended nine full days of training, including a camp in September and October 2006, as well as additional follow-up training (‘continuing professional development’) on matters such as child protection & mandatory reporting.
What did the training involve?
- Gaining information from research, domestic violence survivors and workers in the field. Using the opportunity to ask questions and get clarifications from the experts.
- Understanding the complexity of violence through speaking to victims or workers of different nationalities, migrant status, religions, cultures, sexualities, socioeconomic status’, age and gender
Empowering each other and gaining confidence to talk, discuss & share our enthusiasm to learn more, share and explore, just like we encourage the participants - The peer educators participated in the workshop themselves to understand the project from a participants perspective, they then had the opportunity to run the workshops in front of each other and other workers to gain feedback and gain confidence
- Learning group facilitation skills, not only for facilitating with another peer educator but also for the age group and school setting.
- Using scenarios, role plays & videos of true stories of violence in young women’s relationships to develop an in-depth understanding, to emotionally equip the peer educators and to handle disclosures.
Training topics:
- Core skills - group facilitation, group dynamics, learning styles, evaluation
- Diversity - focusing on the needs & different experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, refugee and migrant women, and same-sex attracted young people
- Understanding domestic violence from a variety of perspectives – understanding different genders experience, different age groups, myths of domestic violence, different forms of domestic violence
- Feminism – using a feminist framework, understanding how young women relate to feminism
- Peer educators role and professional development
- Domestic violence & child protection
- Self-care, support & networking
- Handling stresses that might come up as a peer educator (like one of the girls telling you she’s been abused).
- Practicing running workshops and giving & receiving feedback
- Evaluating- evaluating our facilitation, our understanding of the material and the workshop
- Understanding the dynamics of working in schools – child protection, privacy issues, role of staff, relationship amongst participants
Trainers:
- Sonia Hoffmann (WEEO WISER Project Coordinator)
- Jenny Pitty (Consultant for Liverpool Women’s Health Centre)
- Laura Murphy (Fairfield Liverpool Youth Health Team).
Guest speakers:
- DV outreach service (workers and a woman who had experienced domestic violence)
- Wirringa Baiya (Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre)
- Refugee health
- Department of Education and Training, student welfare
- ACON (Violence in same-sex relationships)
- Jannawi Family Centre (child protection)
- DVLO from Liverpool Police
- VAW Regional Strategy
- Various workers from Liverpool Women’s Health Centre and Fairfield Liverpool Youth Health Team (FLYHT)
- Fairfield/ Liverpool Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Scheme
Who are the support people:
Each workshop program has a support person to support the peer educators of the project.
A support person is a social worker or worker in a similar field in the local area. The support person does not participate in the group facilitation but is often present to provide feedback to the peer educators. This may be in regards to group facilitation, to provide peer educators with information for queries outside normal workshop information or in case of a disclosure by a participant.
The support person provides assistance to the peer educations between each session in the form of ongoing feedback. With a pool of twelve support people and the project coordinator, the peer educators get the best support available.
