ESHTE team deliver workshops on consent at FemFest event in Dublin
The Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment in Third-Level Education (ESHTE) project team took part in today's #FemFest event for young women in Dublin, delivering workshops on consent and breaking the culture of sexual violence.
#FemFest is a major annual conference from the National Women's Council of Ireland, aimed at young women aged 16-25 and encompassing themes of leadership, equality, and planning a feminist future.
Speakers at this year's event included the prominent women's health campaigner, Vicky Phelan; activist and local election candidate, Ellie Kisyombe; Equality Officer of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Aisling Cusack; and many more.
As part of the event line-up, fifty young women took part in a series of workshops delivered by ESHTE Project Coordinator Tara Brown and Project Officer Orlaith Grehan, exploring the topic of consent and the culture of sexual violence and harassment.
In an interactive setting, participants were invited to share their own understandings of consent and the spaces where it applies. After discussing these together as a group, participants then undertook an exercise to examine the root causes, enablers and impacts of the culture of sexual violence and harassment, as well as the solutions needed to eradicate it.
The workshop provided an important opportunity to engage young people on issues of consent, with participants underscoring the need for respect, autonomy, enthusiasm and openness in healthy, consensual relationships.
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For more information on the ESHTE consent workshops at FemFest, read this article by Tara Brown.