This section provides guidance on how to engage the wider community in a Whole School Approach (WSA). Preventing gender-based violence (GBV) is a collective effort, which needs to involve the whole community. The support of specialist organisations, parents and carers, and the wider community help bolster the programme, drive change and make children safer. It’s really important that the messages you are communicating to young people are reinforced outside of school.
An Ecological Understanding of Gender-based Violence
The ecological model developed as a way of understanding the different factors that contribute to GBV and the associated risk to a young person – as an individual, via their relationships, within education and on a wider societal level. How these aspects of a young person’s life interact will also be relevant to their level of risk. Schools that are supported by their wider community will reduce the level of risk and achieve better outcomes for students and staff.