At West Mercia Women’s Aid, we are committed not only to supporting survivors of domestic abuse, but to preventing abuse before it begins. Over the past 16 months, our Young Persons Prevention Project has been a vital part of that mission.
Delivered in partnership with The Right Path and Everyone’s Invited, the project provided targeted educational and community-based interventions to more than 21,000 young people aged 11-18 across West Mercia. Alongside this, 762 education professionals received specialist training designed to increase understanding of domestic abuse, misogyny, harmful gender stereotypes, and healthy relationships.
Although funding constraints meant the project came to an end in March 2026, its impact has been significant – and the need for this work has never been clearer.
The Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, published in December 2025, found that 39% of adolescents aged 13-17 who had been in a relationship in the previous year had experienced emotional or physical abuse from a partner. This deeply concerning statistic reflects the growing prevalence of harm experienced by young people, including misogyny in schools, online abuse, peer-to-peer relationship abuse, and the continuation of intergenerational patterns of violence.
Preventative work with children and young people is essential if we are to create long-term cultural change. The VAWG Strategy highlights early intervention as a key priority, while research from the Youth Endowment Fund found that relationship violence prevention lessons and activities can reduce violence in young people’s intimate relationships by an average of 17%.
Every child and young person deserves the opportunity to learn about consent, personal boundaries, online safety, and what healthy relationships should look and feel like. Equipping young people with the confidence to recognise coercive or abusive behaviour – and challenge harmful attitudes – is crucial in preventing abuse from becoming normalised.
This work is particularly important in today’s digital landscape, where young people are increasingly exposed to misogynistic influencers, harmful online content, and distorted portrayals of relationships. Parents, carers, educators, and trusted adults all have a role to play in helping young people critically navigate these messages and develop respectful, empathetic attitudes towards others.
Through this project, we have worked to challenge harmful beliefs surrounding power, control, and gender roles, while encouraging positive understandings of masculinity and femininity. Our aim is to help young people build safe, respectful relationships and ultimately break the cycle of domestic abuse for future generations.
While this chapter of the project has ended, our commitment to prevention work remains unwavering. We will continue to seek opportunities to expand this vital work and ensure young people across our communities can grow up free from abuse and harm.
Find out more about our Support for Children and Young People.