What is ESAS?
Equally Safe at School (ESAS) is a project that works with schools to stop gender-based violence from happening. It’s also about making school a more supportive place for students who have been affected by gender-based violence.
To achieve this, ESAS works with the whole school community through lots of different activities. These activities are:
- School assessments to find out what the main problems are
- A student action group where students plan actions that they believe will make a difference
- Teacher training to help teachers know more about gender-based violence and what they can do to stop it
- Policy work that makes sure school policies about gender-based violence are clear and work well
- Teaching resources for teachers to help ensure the curriculum includes learning about gender equality and gender-based violence
- Monitoring progress to find out how well activities are working and how to keep up the good work
What is gender-based violence?
Gender-based violence is a term we use to refer to certain kinds of abusive or violent behaviour. No child or young person should ever face violence or abuse - they are never to blame and have the right to help and support.
Gender-based violence doesn’t always involve physical violence, but can hurt in other ways, like emotionally and psychologically. We call it gender-based violence because it is linked to inequality between women and men in society, and although anyone can experience it, the behaviours are mostly carried out by men and boys and directed at women, girls and transgender people. Gender-based violence can include:
- Rape and sexual assault
- Unwanted touching
- Abusive relationships (including domestic abuse)
- Sexual harassment
- Unwanted sexual comments
- Stalking
- Female Genital Mutilation
- Honour-based violence
- Forced marriage
- Image-based abuse
- Grooming and exploitation
To find out more about what gender-based violence is, visit Young Scot’s Website.
