The Approach
The Addressing Sexual Bullying Across Europe (ASBAE) project, was a two-year EC Daphne-funded project focused on sexual bullying (encompassing sexual harassment, homo- and bi-phobic bullying and transphobic bullying) amongst young people across five European countries (Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia and the UK).
Working in partnership with young people (aged 13-18) the project team conducted research with 253 young people and 37 professionals in the field of child education and protection about their understandings and experiences of sexual bullying and their ideas for tackling it.
The ACT Pack
The ACT Pack is a research-informed intervention helping to prevent sexual bullying among young people in Italy, Latvia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and England. It is designed to help youths aged 13-18 recognise sexual bullying and protect themselves and others from harm. Since 2015, the pack has been implemented with over 6,000 young people in the five countries and 1,200 teachers and youth workers have been trained using the ACT Pack. The research has also influenced changes to Relationship and Sex Education Policy in England (2017) and legislation in Italy on cyberbullying (2017) and gender-based violence (2019).
Our intervention, the ‘ACT Pack’, incorporates all 12 of our recommendations from the research phase of the ASBAE project. The pack includes a three-day training programme for young facilitators and the adults who support them, and the materials and evaluation tools for a two-day peer-to-peer workshop to address sexual bullying. The workshop covers five themes – awareness of sexual bullying, gender and sexuality, sexting, effects of sexual bullying and tackling sexual bullying – and incorporates discussions, media clips, roleplay and other interactive activities.