Know the No

Know the No

St Angela's College, Cork

The Social Issue:

Their big idea was simple: help their generation understand 'sexual consent'. They saw a gap in their curriculum.  They were not being taught about consent in school and felt it was having an impact on their own lives and those of their peers.

The Idea:

Firstly they conducted research among students in their school on their levels of understanding of consent.  They then developed a number of age-appropriate presentations that were delivered to the junior cycle students in their school, during SPHE class and followed this up with post-presentation research among the same students. They collaborated with several organisations, including the Cork Rape Crisis centre, and assembled a team of professionals for an educational conference to take place in the school. In addition, a health professional from the sexual healthcare unit in the South Infirmary hospital delivered a talk to parents from the school. They felt educating parents was just as important as educating their peers, as so much of education begins in the home. Alongside all of this the team ran a social media campaign, they updated their account regularly with educational content. Through these actions the team hoped to further UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

We can comfortably say that a minimum of 300 people now “know the no” and are now educated about consent as a direct impact of our campaign. The thorough education about consent will be a lasting value to these people and will contribute to a generation where sexual assault is less common.

The Impact:

The team have already seen the direct impact of their actions, through their pre and post research strategy they found that over 300 people now ‘know the no’ and have been educated about consent through their actions. Their social media campaign was highly effective reaching even international audiences. Plans for the future include hosting an educational conference on consent with 3 schools in their area which would mean reaching an audience of over 250 students. In May 2020 the team were awarded the Relationships and Sexual Health Challenge Award at the Young Social Innovators Ireland Awards.