Since 2018 the International Centre has been working on the Our Voices Too Youth Advocacy Project in partnership with three national NGOs in Europe: Different & Equal in Albania; the National Center for Child Abuse Prevention (NCCAP) in Moldova and ATINA in Serbia. Each organisation has worked with Youth Advocates who have designed, organised and facilitated a number of advocacy activities.

As the Our Voices Too Youth Advocacy Project is now wrapping up, we wanted to share with you some of the fantastic resources that were developed by the Youth Advocates involved in this project.

The 'Our Voices Too' project is coordinated by ‘The International Centre, researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking’ (IC) at the University of Bedfordshire in the UK and funded by the Oak Foundation.

As part of the ‘Our Voices Too’ project, the IC is working in partnership with three national NGOs in Europe: Different & Equal in Albania; the National Center for Child Abuse Prevention (NCCAP) in Moldova and ATINA in Serbia. Each organisation is implementing participatory advocacy activities in their respective countries with young people affected by sexual violence.  In this blog all five Youth Advocates from Moldova share their reflections and experiences of taking part in the project.

The 'Our Voices Too' project is coordinated by ‘The International Centre, researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking’ (IC) at the University of Bedfordshire in the UK and funded by the Oak Foundation.

As part of the ‘Our Voices Too’ project, the IC is working in partnership with three national NGOs in Europe: Different & Equal in Albania; the National Center for Child Abuse Prevention (NCCAP) in Moldova and ATINA in Serbia. Each organisation is implementing participatory advocacy activities in their respective countries with young people affected by sexual violence.  In this blog one of the youth advocates shares her experiences of being involved in the project.

On Monday 18th November, to mark the European Day on the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, the ‘International Centre, researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking’ (IC) at the University of Bedfordshire, in the UK will be sharing findings from the Our Voices Too Youth Advocacy Project

In early September the Our Voices Too team at the International Centre (IC) organised our second shared learning event in Chisinau, Moldova, for the Our Voices Too Youth Advocacy Project.  This two day meeting brought together our partners - Different & Equal in Albania; the National Center for Child Abuse Prevention (NCCAP) in Moldova and ATINA in Serbia to share learning on how the project has been developing.

We would like to share findings from a participatory study on supporting mental health and wellbeing after sexual abuse in adolescence conducted by colleagues from 'The International Centre: Researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking', University of Bedfordshire. 

Two members of our Young Researchers’ Advisory Panel recently spoke at a BASPCAN conference about the importance of involving young people in research and the possible benefits and limitations of this. In this blog Abbie Rodgers, one of the presenters, reflects on this experience. 

On the 17th November 2017 the LEAP project came to an end. This blog, written by Kate D'Arcy the Project Coordinator for LEAP, shares what has been developed as a result of this two year European project.

This blog post introduces a poster, designed by a group of young people, for police officers, which outlines small steps the police can take when working with young people affected by child sexual exploitation (CSE), other forms of sexual abuse and associated vulnerabilities in adolescence.

Our Voices collaborate with youth advisors on a film and poster project to raise awareness of sexual violence in Albania.

A core aim of the International Centre is to develop and enhance opportunities for children and young people to meaningfully and ethically engage in, and influence, research, policy and practice. One way in which we hope to do this is through our partnership with The Oak Foundation, an international foundation promoting children’s rights through its Child Abuse Programme. The International Centre and the Oak Foundation are collaborating to support children’s participation in

preventing sexual violence against children in Europe.

The peer support website ‘A guide for young people supporting each other’ behealthy-peersupport.org.uk has recently been launched in the UK to provide advice and support to young people who are trying to provide support to friends who may be going through difficult situations such as anxiety, self-harm, sexual abuse and violence.

In 2015 the ‘Our Voices’ project secured a small amount of funds to help groups of young people who had been involved in the 'Our Voices' consultations who wanted to take part in a short project. One group of young people in Varna, Bulgaria decided that they would like to develop aphotography exhibition to share messages about sexual violence in their local community.

The Coventry Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Advisory Board was formed in March 2015 and we were invited to take part by different people and through adverts seen in the city.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child are writing a General Comment on the rights of adolescents, fill in this survey and take your opportunity to shape what the General Comment will say.