Ariel Trust has secured funding from P H Holt Foundation that will support us to engage the community around schools to co-create an educational resource to tackle peer-to-peer abuse - one of the fastest growing crimes on Merseyside. The police have called for action to prevent this, our partnership with schools means Ariel Trust is well placed to respond to this call.
Ariel Trust is now the leading supplier of violence reduction resources to primary schools in Merseyside. Our programmes of learning take an evidence-based approach that uses forum theatre to engage children in activities designed to develop refusal skills and build resilience.
During 2025/26, this project will apply that evidence-based approach to the development of a new digital learning platform designed to tackle peer-to-peer abuse. The resource will explore the legal & emotional consequences associated with the sharing of indecent images and will empower children to resist peer pressure and seek help from trusted adults.
The need for this project was first identified by a Senior Police Officer, when speaking at a Serious Violence Strategy Group meeting. Peer-to-peer sharing of images, between children, was identified as the fastest growing area of sexual abuse and the current policing response was offering an ineffective, inadequate response. A Superintendent explained, “One of the biggest problems that we face is children sharing sexual images with one another, peer-to-peer sharing. This is a crime and when it is reported to us, a police officer has to knock on the door of a family. When families find out that their child has been involved in a crime, the family often experiences trauma. This is not the impact that that we want to create and we need to consider alternative, preventative approaches”.
In order to respond to this need Ariel’s senior staff team have begun a co-creation process, engaging police officers, parents, teachers and children. We are engaging with key stake holders from across the community and listening to their needs. We would like to develop the things that those partners have shared with us into digital resources that can be shared with schools across Merseyside.
Support from PH Holt Foundation will enable Ariel to work with script writers, actors, animators and web designers to turn the needs of the community into a programme of learning which can be delivered in schools across our region.
