The government has announced a new strategy to introduce domestic violence lessons into schools in England and Wales.

Charities VIP (Violence Is Preventable) and gay domestic violence charity Broken Rainbow urged the government to look at the existing - and successful - projects already running. They also urged the Government to see the issue as a societal problem and not for heterosexual couples only as 63% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans 18-25 year olds admitted to experiencing domestic violence.

VIP features resources for young people of all ages. This multi award winning programme has been running in schools all over the UK  for 13 years. It has been endorsed by the World Health Organisation’s Global Alliance for the Prevention of Violence.

The programme resources are all evidence based and have proven to:
Encourage abuse disclosures, helping young people to decide whether to tell.
Give young people enough information to identify their experiences as abuse; in our online survey, 39% of 18- 25year olds couldn't identify their experiences as domestic violence until the Home Office definition was shown to them.
Be cost effective – less than £5 a pupil to deliver
 
Research by the University of Dundee into the effectiveness of school-based abuse prevention programmes worldwide has concluded that the VIP programme is the best known school based programme in terms of encouraging disclosures and cost effectiveness. The study concluded that the Tweenees part of the VIP Programme, delivered to pupils between 8 - 13 years old, was the first to demonstrate a high level of disclosure of different forms of abuse.

The report recommends that training for teachers in delivering abuse prevention lessons is vital and lists a number of areas where this would increase the effectiveness of teacher led sessions.

Produced in partnership with Broken Rainbow, a new VIP DVD focussing on LGBT issues entitled ‘Under the Rainbow’ has also been developed with schools in mind. 

A number of topics are examined including domestic violence, gay parents and homophobia.

It aims to:
Generate discussion about LGBT issues
Raise awareness of the issues of homophobia and how to challenge and prevent it
Teach adults and young people that violence is preventable and there are positive ways of solving conflict
Give young people a voice on these issues.

Rita Hirani, CEO of Broken Rainbow, said:
"Our message to the Government is simple.  We welcome the renewed focus on Domestic Violence prevention and its introduction to the school curriculum, but please focus on all types of relationships in our society and don’t spend time and money re-inventing the wheel. Effective and evidence based resources do already exist – come and see what VIP has to offer."

For more information about Broken Rainbow view:
www.broken-rainbow.org.uk