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NTU Students take part in workshops exploring consent

Earlier this year NTU held consent based workshops to 6,000 first year students. The idea sparked from one student submitted a ‘Big Idea’ on NTSU’s platform. They asked for compulsory consent training. Their submission broke the record for the number of ‘likes’ that NTSU had seen that year and so, the Consent is Everything workshops were created.

    Consent

    The Consent is Everything workshops are a collaborative consent education programme. NTSU and NTU Student Support Services worked together to develop the interactive face-to-face workshops. This year our consent facilitator volunteer programme consisted of 25 students, 2 alumni fellows and 57 NTU and NTSU staff.

    The workshops provided an exploration of giving and receiving consent, understanding of consent in various scenarios and signposting to support agencies. NTU and NTSU colleagues developed the content in collaboration with students.

    The programme was facilitated by a trained colleague alongside a student or an Alumni Fellow. To date the workshops have ran smoothly for two academic years thanks to our pool of volunteer facilitators. Their passion and dedication resulted in 274 workshops delivered to over 6,000 first year students this year alone.

    One of the volunteers this year was our very own Alumni Fellow Peter Binks. Peter joined the Alumni Fellowship Programme in 2023 and has since been involved with leading these workshops, volunteering a huge 37.5 hours of his time to do so. This phenomenal gesture went a huge way towards the success of the initiative overall, furthermore Peter received the award for covering the most workshops as a result.

    Peter spoke to us about why he chose to get involved:

    “Co-Facilitating the Consent is Everything workshops has been a marvellous experience. It is an opportunity to listen to views of younger people I would otherwise not have opportunity to meet.”

    He went on to explain:

    “Being able to contribute to enabling students to have a better, safer, more enjoyable experience at NTU is deeply rewarding.” The facilitator team are all kind, understanding, professional people with great enthusiasm for the subject matter. I feel this is a wonderful development opportunity and a chance to broaden the mind and gain a better understanding of the problems facing young people today.”

    Peters passion for the topic is evident and he feels even more Alumni should get involved in supporting in the future:

    “I think many alumni would gain from facilitating these workshops. Not only is it highly rewarding, but it is a great opportunity to reconnect with NTU, hear a bit about student life and to give students the opportunity to meet post graduates and gain from their experiences, removed from academia”.

    The Consent is Everything workshops will be running again for 2023-2024 from October 2023 till April 2024 and will require more volunteers to ensure its success. If you are interested in joining the programme as a volunteer facilitator please refer to this link where you can find more details about the role, the volunteer brief and our application form.

    Elsewhere if you are an NTU Alumni and wish to become an Alumni Fellow on our Fellowship Programme, so you can be invited to support other activities such as this you can sign up here.

    We would like to thank Peter for his time and commitment to this programme, and we look forward to working alongside more of you in the future.

    Published on 30 August 2023
    • Subject area: Psychology, sociology, health and social care
    • Category: Alumni