“Participatory approaches are essential to implementing a contextual approach effectively: we need to understand the realities of young people’s lives.”
Abianda founder Abi Billinghurst was delighted in January to record a podcast for two organisations: the Contextual Safeguarding Network, and Our Voices – a programme of work coordinated by The International Centre: Researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking at the University of Bedfordshire.
Abi spoke with Research Assistant Delphine Girma about the work of Abianda, the importance of contextual safeguarding, and how participatory principles inform our work.
Abi also talks about Abianda’s work with The International Centre supporting specialist social care teams in Wigan and Rochdale to implement strengths and participatory approaches to CSE. Abi co-wrote training for these teams with Dr Camille Warrington on behalf of Research in Practice.
With the University of Bedfordshire, Abi also worked on the LEAP project (2015-17) with Dr Kate D’Arcy. Abi wrote training tools for young people people and professionals across Europe, to respond to young people’s experiences of sexual violence and to support efforts to prevent sexual violence. The three-day youth facilitator training programme is called “Life-skills, leadership and limitless potential (LLLP)” and can be found on the Child Protection Hub for South-East Europe website. All these programmes provide knowledge and tools to apply participatory approaches to practice with young people.
