Safer launches new site to raise youth awareness

Friday 30 June 2023

New online resources have been made available to the Bailiwick’s young people to help them safely navigate sexual relationships, domestic abuse, and social media.

The site, BeSafer, is for anyone experiencing domestic abuse, but also to encourage knowledge about good relationship practices and to allow questions to be asked and answered.

Naomi Wood, Head of Services at Safer, said the site was needed as there is growing national evidence that girls and boys are being subject to sexual violence and abuse at increased rates.

The new website provides an additional on-demand service to their existing provisions, she added, and it could also help identify “unmet needs or gaps in service provision”. 

“Talking about this stuff, especially when young, can be a big ask,” she said, which can also hit self-esteem and confidence.  

Safer’s long-term aim is for its front-line services to no longer have to exist, according to Ms Wood, through providing positive understanding in childhood which is taken through to adulthood.

Students from the Grammar School were brought in to contribute to the design of the site and consider their needs. 

Pictured: Attendees of the presentation trying out the site.

Safer Chair Fiona Naftel said the resources are pertinent as national statistics show that one in three women, and one in six men, will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.

She thanked the Committee for Home Affairs, the Social Investment Fund, Guernsey Community Foundation, and Lloyds Foundation for continuing to support their initiatives.

 A wide array of stakeholders attended the launch event including the Head of Law Enforcement, third sector workers, teachers, the Dean of Guernsey, and Louise Cripwell, wife of Guernsey’s Lieutenant-Governor, and the patron of Safer. 

BeSafer can be accessed HERE. 

Pictured (top): Naomi Wood.