A Community in Motion 'Active Bystandership' Workshop

The West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership, in collaboration with Graham Goulden, are pleased to announce five free interactive and online workshops to promote and support community discussions aimed at developing personal leadership to help prevent abuse and harm in our communities.

Workshop Overview:

In our lives, we sometimes witness attitudes and/or behaviours that we don’t like or agree with.

The default can often be to “ignore” - walk away and remain silent, even when it is a, friend, or neighbour that is involved or impacted. We might not see it as our business or our role to intervene. We might be afraid to intervene. As one great leader once said.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”

Do we ever consider the consequences of our inaction? What does our silence and inaction say to those involved or impacted? Does individual silence contribute to further harm doing?

This training will promote discussions on a range of social situations that can have a negative impact in any community. It will look at the concept of ‘Active Bystandership’ and aims to provide answers to the above questions. It also aims to provide participants with some practical strategies that can be used personally to both support and challenge others in difficult situations.

Aims

The aim of these highly interactive workshops will be to explore the role of personal leadership and community to prevent abuse and harm. Recognising the nuances and different needs of our communities, bespoke sessions will be delivered in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield through a two hour highly interactive session.

The aim of this training will be to explore the role of personal leadership to prevent abuse and harm in the community.

By the end of these sessions participants will be able to:

• Define active bystandership and its role in reducing harm within a community.
• Discuss inhibitors that prevent bystander action.
• Discuss the role of personal leadership in both reducing harm as well as its role in activating bystanders in a community setting.
• Discuss ways to create a safe and supportive community culture.
• Practice the use of bystander tools.

Workshop times and Dates

All sessions will be delivered online (link provided shortly before the workshop is delivered) between 7pm and 9pm:

• Bradford 13th March 2025
• Calderdale 27th February 2025
• Kirklees 5th March 2025
• Leeds 20th February 2025
• Wakefield 31st March 2025

The training is aimed at those active in community cohesion and those with responsibility for policy and delivery of community support from both statutory and non statutory partners.