A Dundee children and young people’s charity has revealed five disclosures of abuse are coming out of every violence prevention session it runs.
Kieran Watson, a counsellor with Eighteen and Under, revealed the startling figures that have emerged from sessions of the Violence is Preventable (VIP) programme the charity runs in schools across Scotland as he announced it has been nominated for yet another award.
The charity, which targets children as young as two in order to identify abuse early, scooped the National Charity Award for support and advice back in June and is now up for a Charity Times Award.
Independent research by Ian Barron of Dundee University found VIP to be the only abuse prevention programme worldwide that not only increases child safety through raised awareness but also increases the number of disclosures of abuse.
His study looked at Eighteen and Under’s work with survivors of abuse in specialised sessions as well as the charity’s general workshops with primary and secondary classrooms. Co-ordinator Laurie Matthew (56), who has been involved with the project from the start, said the disclosure figures are not surprising.
“The rate of disclosures isn’t shocking,” she said. “If you look at adult survivors of abuse you find it’s really high figures when people are finally able to talk about their experiences.
“We know there’s a lot of domestic and sexual violence and children suffering from bullying and domestic violence. We know statistically those children exist but by the time they are teenagers they are pretty well versed at keeping quiet so the earlier we at VIP can get into a nursery or primary the best we can prevent abuse.
“Obviously it’s good we get disclosures, but it would be better to not get them and be preventing abuse in the first place.”
Speaking about the charity’s latest award nomination Daniel McKinnel, assistant promotional worker, said, “Our aim is to create awareness across the UK about the issues surrounding child sexual abuse.
“To ensure that there is proper support in place for any survivors of abuse, we hope to achieve these aims through partnership working with the overall outcome being a safer world for children to grow in.
“This award will help us achieve our outcomes in the same way that the other awards have helped us. By raising our profile and making more people aware of our service, we are of course able to reach a larger number of young people who may benefit from support.”Eighteen and Under website.