The AVA project : empowering young people to address domestic and sexual violence : final evaluation report

The AVA Project: Empowering young people to address domestic and sexual violence (hereafter referred to as ‘the Project’) was developed and led by AVA, a UK charity committed to ending gender based violence and abuse. The overarching aim of the project was: “to deliver therapeutic group-work and leadership development to disadvantaged and marginalised young people to improve their understanding of domestic and sexual violence, to improve their emotional wellbeing and to empower them to influence peers and advocate for the needs of themselves and others within social care and education services”. The project defined itself as underpinned by a number of key values including: youth work (specifically the principle of voluntary engagement); participation; and feminist practice. It was funded for £298,254 over three years by Big Lottery: Reaching Communities Fund, commencing in April 2013 and, with a short project extension continued until July 2016. The project was delivered in five local sites (localities) across England, through two distinct though related models: MODEL 1: ‘Peer Education’ - a therapeutic group-work model across two project sites focused on improving emotional wellbeing and awareness of domestic and sexual violence (DSV). MODEL 2: ‘Youth leadership’ - a youth leadership project to improve young people’s emotional wellbeing, their understanding of domestic and sexual violence (DSV) and that of their peers, whilst increasing opportunities for, and the abilities of, young people to influence services aimed at them in relation to DSV

Nightwatch : CSE in plain sight : final evaluation report

This is the final evaluation report for the Barnardo’s Nightwatch: CSE in Plain Sight project produced by The International Centre: researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking at the University of Bedfordshire. The Nightwatch project was launched in April 2015 and concluded at the end of March 2016. The evaluation was undertaken during the same period. The aims of Nightwatch were described by the DfE (2015:7-8): ‘To safeguard children and young people from child sexual exploitation (CSE) by increasing awareness of CSE among businesses and services working in the night-time economy (NTE), and by developing strategies, in co-production with these businesses and others, to identify and protect children at risk at night, and intervene early by providing advice, support, training and guidance’

Families and Communities Against Child Sexual Exploitation (FCASE) : final evaluation report

This is the final evaluation report for the Barnardo’s Families and Communities Against Sexual Exploitation project (FCASE), produced by the International Centre, researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking at the University of Bedfordshire. The programme was launched in April 2013, funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and concluded in March 2015. The evaluation was undertaken during the same period. The FCASE model has been piloted in three sites, which for the purposes of this report have been anonymised and will be referred to using pseudonyms. It consists of the following elements: a structured programme of six to eight weeks direct work with young people and families where a risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE) has been identified; delivery of CSE training with professionals; and undertaking community awareness raising. The evaluation has been informed by a range of qualitative data. The report identifies the elements that work well and some of the challenges in its implementation. This had been done in order to determine good practice in supporting families and communities and embed more effective practice on protecting children and young people, including those in foster care, from sexual exploitation, harnessing the protective factors within a child’s family and/or foster home. The learning from the project is intended to help other agencies to implement the FCASE model. An on-line learning resource is to be produced in order to facilitate this process

Youth and community approaches to preventing child sexual exploitation: South African and UK project experiences

This chapter brings together case studies from two pieces of research – an evaluative study in the UK (D’Arcy et al., 2015) and a participatory action research project in South Africa (Wallace, 2015). The chapter aims to provide international perspectives on youth and community approaches to empowering children, young people and their families in preventing and raising awareness of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child SexualAbuse (CSA). It highlights the potential relevance and significance of central tenets of youth and community approaches to prevention work in CSE and CSA by drawing upon the concepts of education, voluntary engagement,participation, strengths-based approaches and rights-based models of working with children and young people

Being and doing boy: marginalised young masculinities and professional practice

This thesis examines the perspectives of a group of teenage boys, marginalised through school exclusion, and the practice of professionals. Central concerns are the accounts these boys give of themselves discursively and through their material and embodied practices. The roles and relationships of professionals and the situated context of a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) setting are key elements that are also examined. The study uses a mixed methods approach within an overall approach of ethnography. In addition to participant observation, twice-weekly group work sessions were undertaken at a PRU in London over a three-month period. The research was conducted with a group of five ethnically diverse boys aged 14 and 15. Drama based creative and participative methods were used in the group work. Interviews and focus groups were undertaken with professionals. Borrowing from longitudinal research methods, the research design used reflexive and recursive methods to explore data with research participants at different time phases. This included returning to the research site one year after the group work phase to involve a second group of boys (age 15-16) from the PRU in data analysis for the study. The study examines enactments of identity and subject positions taken up by and conferred upon boys in this research. It explores how the practice of professionals, including teachers, teaching assistants, social workers and multi-disciplinary professionals, can contribute to possibilities for excluded boys. The thesis explores the work of gender and critically engages with theories of hegemonic masculinities that shape the field. The methods used are designed to enable close listening and affectively attuned attention to participants’ ways of being and doing boy in the PRU context, working creatively with the analyses and insights provided by the young men themselves. The research is set within a post structural framework and informed by psychosocial approaches and theories of affect and materiality. Through these approaches the study develops thick descriptions that produce new insights into the relationship between identity, subjectivity and performativity. The voices of boys who took part in the research are central to the conclusions of the study. The PRU is presented as a transitory and inherently contradictory space that is caught between its role as a return pathway to the often idealised space of mainstream school, and its role as a therapeutic space that offers young people the attention they need. It is argued that this contradictory context also contributes to conditions of impossibility for excluded boys. Key contributions to the research field include an expanded understanding of the situated nature of identity and subject formation and an analysis of masking and concealment as carried out at the PRU by boys and professionals. The study highlights complexities and challenges for professional practice with excluded young people and presents ways of stimulating reflective practice as well as the central importance of listening to the voices of marginalised boys and understanding their motivations

A randomized controlled trial of training in Motivational Interviewing for child protection.

There has been interest in developing more evidence-based approaches to child and family social work in the UK in recent years. This study examines the impact of a skills development package of training and supervision in Motivational Interviewing (MI) on the skills of social workers and the engagement of parents through a randomized controlled trial. All workers in one local authority were randomly assigned to receive the package (n = 28) or control (n = 33). Families were then randomized to trained (n = 67) or untrained (n = 98) workers. Family meetings with the worker shortly after allocation were evaluated for MI skill. Research interviews gathered data including the WAI. Follow-up interviews 20 weeks later repeated the WAI, and other outcome measures including Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) and rating of family life. Between group analysis found statistically significant difference in MI skills, though these were not substantial (2.49 in control, 2.91 MI trained, p = .049). There was no statistically significant difference between groups in any other outcome measures. The package of training and supervision did not create sufficient increase in MI skills to influence engagement or outcomes. Implications for understanding the relationship between skills, engagement and organizational change are discussed

Delayed and altered post-fire recovery pathways of Mediterranean shrubland under 20-year drought manipulation

Increasing water deficits and severe droughts are expected to alter the dynamics of vegetation post-disturbance recovery by decreasing new recruitment and limiting growth in semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems in future. However, which vegetation metrics will be shifted and how they respond over time are not clear, and the experimental evidence is still limited. Here we assessed the impacts of a long-term (20 years) experimental drought (-30% rainfall) on the pathways of vegetation metrics related to species richness, community composition and abundance dynamics for an early-successional Mediterranean shrubland. The results indicate that the pathways of vegetation metrics were differently affected by experimental drought. The abundance of Globularia alypum follows pathway 1 (altered mature state). Simpson diversity and abundance of Erica multiflora follow pathway 2 (delayed succession) while species richness, community abundance and shrub abundance follow pathway 3 (alternative stable state). There were no significances for the resilience to extremely dry years (the ratio between the performance after and before severe events) between control and drought treatment for all vegetation metric. But, their resilience for the metrics (except Simpson diversity) to extremely dry years in 2016-17 were significantly lower than that of 2001 and of 2006-07, possibly caused by the severe water deficits in 2016-17 at mature successional stage. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows that the first two principal components explained 72.3 % of the variance in vegetation metrics. The first axis was mainly related to the changes in community abundance, shrub abundance and species richness while the second axis was related to Simpson diversity and abundance of G. alypum and E. multiflora. Principal component scores along PC1 between control and drought treatment were significantly decreased by long-term experimental drought, but the scores along PC2 were not affected. Further research should focus on successional pathways in more water-deficit conditions in Mediterranean ecosystems and the consequences of changes in vegetation recovery pathways on ecosystem functions such as biomass accumulation and soil properties.Peer reviewe

Hepatitis B vaccination coverage in Germany: systematic review

Background Despite being considered as a low prevalence country for hepatitis B (HBV), some populations in Germany are at higher risk of infection. In the context of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) viral hepatitis elimination goals, a valid epidemiological data base is needed to plan and monitor the national response. Prevention strategies include general and targeted HBV vaccination programmes. Objective The aim of this work was to estimate the HBV vaccination coverage (VC) in the general population (GP) and different population groups in Germany from available evidence and to identify current evidence gaps for future research. Methods We conducted a systematic review on HBV VC in the general population and populations at high risk of HBV exposure or severe infection in Germany. We included eligible publications (01/01/2017 to 06/06/2020) from databases Embase, Pubmed and Livivo, from a previous scoping review (including data published 01/01/2005–17/03/2017), from the national surveillance system and screened the reference lists of all publications at full text level. Risk of bias was assessed using the Hoy et al. tool. Results We included 68 publications of 67 studies and assigned them to one or more suitable population groups. Twenty-one studies contained data among children/adolescents and three among adults from the GP (VC 65.8–90.5% and 22.9–52.1%, respectively), one among travelers (VC 89.0%), 13 among immunocompromised populations (VC 7.8–89.0%), 16 among populations with occupational risk and 16 with non-occupational risk of HBV exposure (VC 63.6–96.5% and 4.4–84.5%, respectively). Conclusion Comprehensive evidence at low risk of bias was identified for children/adolescents. However, 25 years after including HBV in the national immunisation schedule, VC in Germany is still below the 95%-goal defined by WHO. For people at occupational risk of HBV exposure, VC was mostly reported to be over the WHO goal of 80%, but quality of evidence was heterogenous and should be improved. For people at non-occupational risk of HBV exposure, evidence was sparse and of low quality. The low VC highlights the need for future research to plan vaccination programmes targeting these populations.Peer Reviewe