Weymouth College students 'empowered' to prevent sexual harassment
Workshops have been held throughout this week
More than 400 students at Weymouth College will have taken part in Empowerment workshops by the end of the this week.
The idea behind them is to start conversations about what sexual harassment is, how to recognise it, and how to intervene if it's safe to do so.
The courses have been funded by Dorset Council, who received Government funding from the Safer Streets initiative.
That was set up in the wake of the Sarah Everard case, to support schemes that promote personal safety and awareness.
Local charity Stars Dorset is hosting the workshops and their CEO Helen Stevens says it's an important subject:
"Some of (the students) have realised that perhaps experience that they've witnessed, or have experienced themselves, actually fall under the umbrella of sexual harassment and they hadn't really considered before. There are specialist agencies out there, like Stars, that they have a conversation with and they can talk to somebody."
The workshops are being delivered this week to coincide with the national awareness week for Sexual Violence and Sexual Abuse, with the #ITSNOTOK
Stars work with victims of any kind of sexual violence, and say topics like this are 'societal issues' that need to be addressed.
Helen Stevens from the charity says they want to spark conversations, making sexual harassment less of a taboo:
"We're not giving them answers, we're trying to empower the young people to come to their own conclusions with a little bit of information that they can then use and hopefully start to challenge (incidents) and feel empowered to make a difference moving forward."
A photo exhibition has also put up at Weymouth College to get the young people talking about the issue.
If you've been a victim of sexual violence, and want to talk to somebody, you can contact Stars Dorset through their social media via the posts above or by visiting their website.
There's also support available from Dorset Police through their website.