Frequently asked questions
How much does your training cost?
Please get in touch with us at hello[at]abianda.com to discuss your request.
I attended your one-day training a couple of years ago - can I now undertake one of the additional modules without doing the core module again?
Yes absolutely – please be ready to confirm with us when you attended our one-day training.
It is essential attendees for our additional modules are familiar with our principles, approach, and the context of our work, in order to get the most out of our training.
You will have this if you attended one of our Young Trainer Seminars, one-day training, or 3-day training courses before COVID-19.
I have accessibility / learning needs. Are you able to support with this?
We will absolutely try our best to support any training attendees. Please let us know what you need and we will see what we can do to make our training accessible to you.
When will you send the Zoom link?
We will send a pre-training email the week before your event. This will include the Zoom link, contact details for our admin support, and suggested pre-reading.
Who do I contact if I have a technical issue?
In your pre-training email, you will receive contact details for your training admin support – she’ll be able to support you on the day.
Will I get a certificate?
We do not routinely prepare certificates for training attendees, however we are very happy to do so at no additional cost should this be helpful.
What do you mean by gangs?
Please read our reflections on the term here: https://125566b5-5093-4e3c-b36d-61e46fce3fef.filesusr.com/ugd/9097d2_5d4f5053d3f341c5a83ad11e138f65db.pdf
I want to hear directly from a young woman who has been involved in gangs - will that happen at your training?
Young women inform all our work – from determining their own Best Hopes from our work together, to informing our training modules, and giving feedback on our policies.
Our training is informed by our frontline experience supporting young women and girls affected by gangs and county lines. It has been reviewed by young women and has their feedback integrated.
Young women often join our training – sometimes as observers, sometimes as co-facilitators. They may choose to share their own feedback on their work with Abianda directly with training attendees.
They do not, however, routinely offer testimony on their experience of exploitation, violence and trauma. This is for three reasons:
1. Our Consultants are employed on part-time fixed-term contracts, growing their professional experience and developing a professional identity. We do not wish them to be solely or primarily identified with their historic experiences.
2. It is impossible to predict how revisiting previous experiences may impact our Consultants on a day-to-day basis. While they may have felt resilient enough to discuss historic incidents last week, today the same story may be immensely triggering, provoke disassociation, and cause significant harm.
3. We do not wish to perpetuate power imbalances where young women feel obliged to recite testimony to receive affirmation from professionals, or pay from their employer.
Do you offer training on young men and gangs?
Our expertise is in working with young women and girls affected by gangs and county lines. We believe they are often an overlooked group, and that their experiences deserve greater attention and better support.
We recognise, of course, that young men are negatively impacted by child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, youth violence, “gang” exploitation, and many other issues which impact on the young women we work with.
Our training will support professionals working with young people of all genders affected by youth violence, because we offer insight into an often-overlooked element of youth violence. Moreover, our tools and techniques are applicable to work with any vulnerable children, adolescents and young adults.
However, we do not provide training specifically on the ways young boys and men are affected by gangs and county line activity – there are plenty of excellent organisations that already deliver that work.
Do you offer training on how to get young women out of gangs?
We deliver training that equips professionals with the knowledge and skills to better identity, and effectively work with, young women and girls affected by gangs and county lines.
Attendees leave our training with greater understanding of the systemic inequalities and oppression that has left young women vulnerable to exploitation. Attendees understand our model of practice, which has a 70% engagement rate with young women, and supports them to move closer to their Best Hopes.
Young women’s “Best Hopes” are her self-determined objectives from our work together. By inviting young women to put forward her goals, we ensure that her views and wishes are at the centre of our work together. These best hopes may or may not relate to getting “out” of a gang, or may be around emotional regulation, or returning to school or college, or regaining custody of a child.
Unfortunately, we cannot wave a magic wand and get young women “out” of gangs – we wish we could.
The young women we work with are affected by complex and interrelated inequalities, risks and harm. Through our structured case work, we support them to develop their critical thinking. Through our rights-based wraparound advocacy, we support them to influence decisions that affect their lives. We will support the young woman to access services, assessments, resources and support that she is entitled to, in order to bring about stability in her life, reduce harm and to ensure the young woman can continue to progress in her life positively and healthily. We will support her to move closer to her own Best Hopes.
All of this, we hope, will support her to be free from harm and abuse.