Young advisors from over 100 teenagers aged 13-21 across several European countries were engaged to advise on a project about increasing safety regarding new technologies and intimate partner violence. The advisors provided input on developing the project website and materials. Challenges included low online discussion participation and high turnover of advisors. Strategies to address this included providing incentives, flexible timing of meetings, and discussing issues in new ways like drawing. Key issues were lack of advisor ownership of the online space and lack of direct cross-country discussions. Recommendations included giving advisors control of social media and enabling international meetings.

2. Engaging young advisors in creating strategies for
increasing safety at the interface of new technologies
and teenage intimate partner violence and abuse
Cath Larkins,
Nicky Stanley, Christine Barter, Nadia Aghtaie,
Marsha Wood, Carolina Overlien, Per Hellevik, Noemi
Deluca, Gianna Cappello, Susana Pavlou, Stalo Lesta,
Georgi Apostolov, Luiza Shahbazyan

3. Presentation Aims
The engagement of young people as
advisors to the STIR study:
1. How were young people involved?
2. What challenges did we encounter?
3. What strategies did we develop?
4. Key Issues
5. What would we recommend for
future research?

4. Who was involved as a young advisor?
• >100 young people aged 13-21
• 1-3 groups in each country
• Each group had 3-25 members
• Male and female, although some female only
• Recruited through schools and youth groups
1. How were young people involved as advisors?

5. Creating a shared space
• Nested within other activities and stand alone.
• Online shared dialogue
http://stiritup.eu/young-people/

6. What did young people advise on?
1) Developing the website
2) Suggesting questions for the questionnaire used in
schools
3) Contributing to design of information leaflets and
consent forms for schools
4) Online discussions to develop share
understandings
5) Developing an app and other web based materials
to help young people facing these issues
6) Identifying key messages and resolving tensions in
data interpretation.

7. What was the impact of young people’s advice?
1) The website – improved, interactive, but owned
by some more than others.
2) The questionnaire became more nuanced in
describing emotions, new technologies & shorter!
3) More accessible information leaflets and consent
forms
4) Online discussions were led by them entirely
5) Their ideas word for word, directed the app
content
6) Press release/campaigns on their key messages

8. 1. Shared Advice – learned about (their own)
relationships
2. Gain skills and leadership for CV
3. Proud of scale of project and achievements
‘It's been a brilliant experience, and I am proud to have
been able to work with such an amazing group and come
up with such a life-changing app. We've had some very
positive feedback from everyone who's seen it. They're
telling us that it's a great app which can help so many
people who end up in a controlling relationship to get
advice, help and reassurance.’ (UK)
What was the impact on young people?

9. 2. What challenges did we encounter?
2a On-line discussion
No direct interaction with the website discussion forums (except
in Norway and to a very limited extent in the UK)
• face to face discussion of the issues
• read through website (online or in paper form) at sessions
• experiential activities used to trigger a dialogue.
• seldom direct responses posted to comments from other young
people
• discussions of the various topics were documented (translated)
and then ‘transferred’ online
Language barrier ?
in Cyprus and Italy vs no language barrier in Norway and UK?

10. 2. What challenges did we encounter?
2a On-line discussion
Language barrier ?
‘Sessions were organized during English class, so
English was a barrier only to a certain extent.’ (Italy)
‘Most of the group members spoke very good English,
their interaction during the YAG meetings was in
Greek. … Language did not appear to be a barrier, as
most of the young people appeared comfortable to
read the responses …in English.’ (Cyprus)

11. STIR ITAL 5
January 27th, 2014 3:57pm
Per vivere una buona relazione sono necessari il rispetto reciproco, il
dialogo e l’affetto. Una relazione è abusiva quando uno dei partner cerca di
sopraffare l’altro, costringendolo a trascurare quelle che sono le proprie
volontà e manifestando una gelosia eccessiva e fuori luogo.
STIR BULGARIA 2
April 30th, 2014 10:38amДобрите взаимоотношения според мен са тези, които се
основават на уважение, отдаденост и доверие, засвидетелствани ежедневно с безброй
малки жестове. Онлайн:Тук нещата не стоят много по-различно. Например, едни добри
онлайн взаимоотношения не би трябвало да включват злоупотреба с материал, който
едната страна споделя (изпраща, препраща) с другата
STIR NORWAY 3
March 15th, 2014 4:22pm
So, I want to ask all of you, do you think that being abused in a relationship only means
your partner hitting you or physically damaging you? Mental abuse is really underrated
and often goes unnoticed which really concerns me because it can hurt just as much as
physical if not more.

12. 2b Other Challenges
• Recruitment and retention
• original young people ‘dropped out’ due to other
commitments.
• very busy with school and after school activities.
• Host project lost funding
• The long texts reviewed = a bit boring.
• Facilitating authentic, honest discussion on these
sensitive issues
• Timing = dates of sessions and progress through
the project milestones

13. 3. Strategies to overcome these challenges
3a Valuing contributions
• Break times and vouchers = valuing
• Status of the project = motivating: contribute to a
European project that would reach thousands of
young people all over Europe
• Very flexible about timing - when and how long
(e.g if they seemed tired from school)
• Food - serve pizza if the came straight from school
• Accepting turnover- don’t have to stay the distance

14. 3. Strategies to overcome these challenges
3b Ways of discussing the issues
• Working in smaller groups helped them focus.
• Keep the discussions live on closed Facebook
pages - using questions or provocative
publications of relevant news
• Using draw-write techniques / discussion
carousels

15. 3. Strategies to overcome these challenges
3c Provide other resources
• Open discussions with information about intimate
violence – forms, factors - so that young people
overcome the taboo and understand that it is a
problem many people face.
• Include our research topic AND other issues they
are interested in - online risks such as bullying,
privacy and others.
• Provide them with support to take forward their
own activities, in the quite times of the STIR
project.

16. 4. Key issues
Ownership of the online environment.
Online discussions moderated by adult
researchers in each country, partly because of
safeguarding concerns but also to increase
exchange.
Inter-country group dynamics were not
sufficiently developed to enable young advisors to
have direct dialogue between countries.

17. 5. Recommendations
1. Facebook, but …
a) not as substitute for face to face.
b) Give them responsibility for it
2. Encourage young people to initiate a campaign of
their own. Link this to individual engagement with
the website outside of the sessions.
3. Include young people with greater confidence in
English.
4. Bringing young people from the different
countries together at the start and end of the
project – international travel budget.

18. www.stiritup.eu
Thank you