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Hi, I'm Kira your Student Living Officer!
Students have repeatedly told us that they don’t feel safe on nights out, particularly when something goes wrong. Our requirement for sober committee members is great, but we wanted to expand our training to help equip more students with the skills they need to confidently and safely intervene if the need arises.
What we've done:
For over a year, I’ve been working with the Exeter Academics Against Assault team, as well as the University’s Learning and Development Manager, to implement mandatory bystander intervention training for all society committees, delivering an updated programme that focuses on safely handling intoxicated people, de-escalating uncomfortable situations, and confidently addressing the nuances of discriminative or harmful behaviour. These sessions will also be delivered in collaboration, so you’re getting all the expertise in a peer-to-peer environment!
What it means for you:
Making this training mandatory for society committee members means that whenever you attend a society event, you’ll have someone there who knows how to help if you need them. While we know that, for committee members, the pressure of being the one “in charge” can be tricky, we’ve also heard from committee members themselves that being given the skills to help would make them feel more comfortable in that position.
What's next:
This training will be delivered during society committee handover in July, so will be in effect next year. The training is only mandatory for presidents and/or welfare leads for this year and next, with the aim of scaling it up to everyone in a couple years.
We’re also looking into how we can show which societies have completed the training, and we’re looking to pursue the route of having a badge or sign on society web pages to show that they’ve taken the training.