Frequently Asked Questions about ABC of CSA Freelance Trainer roles
Q. I wonder what the top age is in your definition of child?
A. Good question. So as a guide we have put under 16 in the info pack but welcome self definition as well. Definitions vary - we put that definition because lots of young people who have experienced CSA/CSE don't see themselves as having been children at the time. However definitions can vary - lots of people say under 18 - some people go by the legal age of consent in the country where the abuse happened which can also vary in law for heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Some people also vary according to the young person's capacity to consent in cases where there may be additional needs or cognitive impairments.
Also if this is a question about whether you or someone you know can apply then I would encourage you/them to go ahead if you/they self define as having experienced child sexual abuse. You/they are also welcome to email us at [email protected] to organize a call to discuss your/their personal circumstances.
Q. What do you consider a reasonable travelling distance to Bristol?
A. This will be a self defined choice. While some people may think that up to an hour's travel by car or public transport is reasonable, others may think they can travel further to undertake the training. Please bear in mind that our travel policy will only pay travel expenses up to £50.00. So to travel to Bristol from Newcastle may not be a feasible option for you.
Q. How long are the training sessions?
The training sessions you are receiving from us will be 6 hours long, from 10am to 4pm with some breaks during the day.
The training you would be delivering will be half-day training sessions; approximately 3 hours long. So, you'd be travelling and delivering and then travelling home in one day. You would be co-delivering these sessions either with a member of our team, or with another member of the training cohort.
Q. Will I have to share the details of my abuse openly in the training?
A. There is absolutely no expectation that anyone has to share anything they are not comfortable or willing to share. However, by working with VGC and undertaking the Train the Trainers programme and delivering the training to others you will be visible as a survivor of CSA within this setting (to the VGC team, to others in the cohort and to the agencies you are delivering training in to).
Throughout the course you will be working alongside others (both the training cohort and professionals who attend your training session) with the ABC of CSA cards, which are a powerful tool to enable survivors to talk about their abuse. Sharing some thoughts, feelings and experiences will be an inevitable outcome of the work we will undertake together and response to the cards. What, if anything, you chose to share is entirely your choice however.
Q. Could you explain a little more about what you mean by a non-pathologising approach?
A. Pathologising is when something is treated as a medical illness. A non-pathologising approach is about working outside of the medical model. Within child sexual abuse survival most of us have either dodged services or have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder.
And although we're very respectful around how anyone identifies we don't see our normal trauma responses as being a disorder or an illness. Therefore, we work within the social model of disability. We focus on understanding the ways in which we've survived as being very normal trauma responses, as using different survival strategies, and we choose not to see those as medical illnesses or disorders.
And that goes alongside our strengths-based model where we choose to celebrate the creativity, the resourcefulness and the resilience within our community. Because any survivor you meet has already been incredibly resilient, otherwise we wouldn't still be here.
Q. What are the expectations on completion of the training? Are we to continue to roll out the training on an ad hoc basis or are we to find companies and charities to approach to offer the training?
And are there any expectations on how many sessions you would like us to deliver and over what time frame?
A. The short answer to that is that we don’t know yet. This is a pilot project funded by Innovate UK to test out a training model for our company. It's likely that we will continue to coordinate any training offers that come in under the company work, so we are not likely to be asking people to find training leads. But we also can't guarantee that there will be training opportunities beyond this. We will be evaluating the pilot and then we'll be deciding what to do next.
Our hope is that we will be able to have a training offer going forward, in which case the trainers that we've trained up will be offered more freelance training opportunities in the future, although we can't promise anything until we have evaluated the pilot.
The training that we offer will have lots of transferable skills and knowledge for other work that you might choose to do, even though you wouldn’t be able to train our projects independently because some of the work is our copyright.
Q. Can I choose where to deliver training sessions?
A. Consent-based practice is very important to us as a company because you're not going to do your best work if you feel uncomfortable.
If, for example, one of the frontline services available to deliver training in is a service that have provided you with support you wouldn't have to deliver training in that service. The training session you co-deliver will be booked in conversation with our Training & Development Coordinator, Maggie Parks, who will secure training dates in a range of services and areas within the South West.
Q. Which kind of services do you work with?
A. At this stage we're exploring working within sexual violence services and therapeutic and mental health services.
We're not looking at working with the police, for example, or with social workers at this stage. That is something that we will look at doing later on, but at this stage we're primarily looking at sexual violence services and the counselling and therapy community.
Q. What are you looking for in a trainer apart from the job spec?
A. We would like to emphasise that the opportunity is open to both sexes and all gender identities.
And that our company approach is that we choose to talk about child sexual abuse boldly, clearly and confidently.
We also have quite a lot of fun, whilst doing quite difficult work and we embrace a full spectrum of emotions - rage and grief and sadness and joy - so we're looking for people who are confident having these conversations and can communicate clearly with people who aren't used to having the conversation because it's been culturally silenced and stigmatised and taboo.
We also work within a reflective practice model and so we're not looking for people who think that they have all the answers. Because we're all on a learning journey together. The conversation around child sexual abuse is so rapidly changing and shifting that to think any of us have it sorted would be a mistake. We're really looking for people who want to go on that journey and keep reflecting and keep learning and growing as the culture around it learns and grows.
A. Good question. So as a guide we have put under 16 in the info pack but welcome self definition as well. Definitions vary - we put that definition because lots of young people who have experienced CSA/CSE don't see themselves as having been children at the time. However definitions can vary - lots of people say under 18 - some people go by the legal age of consent in the country where the abuse happened which can also vary in law for heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Some people also vary according to the young person's capacity to consent in cases where there may be additional needs or cognitive impairments.
Also if this is a question about whether you or someone you know can apply then I would encourage you/them to go ahead if you/they self define as having experienced child sexual abuse. You/they are also welcome to email us at [email protected] to organize a call to discuss your/their personal circumstances.
Q. What do you consider a reasonable travelling distance to Bristol?
A. This will be a self defined choice. While some people may think that up to an hour's travel by car or public transport is reasonable, others may think they can travel further to undertake the training. Please bear in mind that our travel policy will only pay travel expenses up to £50.00. So to travel to Bristol from Newcastle may not be a feasible option for you.
Q. How long are the training sessions?
The training sessions you are receiving from us will be 6 hours long, from 10am to 4pm with some breaks during the day.
The training you would be delivering will be half-day training sessions; approximately 3 hours long. So, you'd be travelling and delivering and then travelling home in one day. You would be co-delivering these sessions either with a member of our team, or with another member of the training cohort.
Q. Will I have to share the details of my abuse openly in the training?
A. There is absolutely no expectation that anyone has to share anything they are not comfortable or willing to share. However, by working with VGC and undertaking the Train the Trainers programme and delivering the training to others you will be visible as a survivor of CSA within this setting (to the VGC team, to others in the cohort and to the agencies you are delivering training in to).
Throughout the course you will be working alongside others (both the training cohort and professionals who attend your training session) with the ABC of CSA cards, which are a powerful tool to enable survivors to talk about their abuse. Sharing some thoughts, feelings and experiences will be an inevitable outcome of the work we will undertake together and response to the cards. What, if anything, you chose to share is entirely your choice however.
Q. Could you explain a little more about what you mean by a non-pathologising approach?
A. Pathologising is when something is treated as a medical illness. A non-pathologising approach is about working outside of the medical model. Within child sexual abuse survival most of us have either dodged services or have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder.
And although we're very respectful around how anyone identifies we don't see our normal trauma responses as being a disorder or an illness. Therefore, we work within the social model of disability. We focus on understanding the ways in which we've survived as being very normal trauma responses, as using different survival strategies, and we choose not to see those as medical illnesses or disorders.
And that goes alongside our strengths-based model where we choose to celebrate the creativity, the resourcefulness and the resilience within our community. Because any survivor you meet has already been incredibly resilient, otherwise we wouldn't still be here.
Q. What are the expectations on completion of the training? Are we to continue to roll out the training on an ad hoc basis or are we to find companies and charities to approach to offer the training?
And are there any expectations on how many sessions you would like us to deliver and over what time frame?
A. The short answer to that is that we don’t know yet. This is a pilot project funded by Innovate UK to test out a training model for our company. It's likely that we will continue to coordinate any training offers that come in under the company work, so we are not likely to be asking people to find training leads. But we also can't guarantee that there will be training opportunities beyond this. We will be evaluating the pilot and then we'll be deciding what to do next.
Our hope is that we will be able to have a training offer going forward, in which case the trainers that we've trained up will be offered more freelance training opportunities in the future, although we can't promise anything until we have evaluated the pilot.
The training that we offer will have lots of transferable skills and knowledge for other work that you might choose to do, even though you wouldn’t be able to train our projects independently because some of the work is our copyright.
Q. Can I choose where to deliver training sessions?
A. Consent-based practice is very important to us as a company because you're not going to do your best work if you feel uncomfortable.
If, for example, one of the frontline services available to deliver training in is a service that have provided you with support you wouldn't have to deliver training in that service. The training session you co-deliver will be booked in conversation with our Training & Development Coordinator, Maggie Parks, who will secure training dates in a range of services and areas within the South West.
Q. Which kind of services do you work with?
A. At this stage we're exploring working within sexual violence services and therapeutic and mental health services.
We're not looking at working with the police, for example, or with social workers at this stage. That is something that we will look at doing later on, but at this stage we're primarily looking at sexual violence services and the counselling and therapy community.
Q. What are you looking for in a trainer apart from the job spec?
A. We would like to emphasise that the opportunity is open to both sexes and all gender identities.
And that our company approach is that we choose to talk about child sexual abuse boldly, clearly and confidently.
We also have quite a lot of fun, whilst doing quite difficult work and we embrace a full spectrum of emotions - rage and grief and sadness and joy - so we're looking for people who are confident having these conversations and can communicate clearly with people who aren't used to having the conversation because it's been culturally silenced and stigmatised and taboo.
We also work within a reflective practice model and so we're not looking for people who think that they have all the answers. Because we're all on a learning journey together. The conversation around child sexual abuse is so rapidly changing and shifting that to think any of us have it sorted would be a mistake. We're really looking for people who want to go on that journey and keep reflecting and keep learning and growing as the culture around it learns and grows.