Everyone's Invited Newsletter: May 2024
Dear Readers
Over the past few months, we have remained focused on expanding our impact in schools and beyond. Young people urgently need access to high-quality, consistent, empathetic and comprehensive relationship education.
We are personal, inclusive and non-judgemental in our approach. We support school communities to create environments where young people feel safe, heard and seen. Where they can articulate their experiences of rape culture and seek support when they need it. You can help us create a world where young people enjoy healthy, equal and loving relationships by supporting our mission to expose and eradicate rape culture with empathy, compassion and understanding. Share your story, bring us to your school, talk about rape culture and donate now.
The Everyone’s Invited Team
Quarterly Highlights
In April, one of our funders, the Oak Foundation, invited us to attend an event about the links between pornography and child sexual abuse. The leaders of the Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme at Oak Foundation have been keen to learn about the issue of the harmful impacts of pornography on children, and it was a pleasure to be in a room full of driven organisations funded by Oak under this stream. We got to hear from Maree Crabbe, the Director of It’s Time We Talked, an organisation tackling the harmful effects of pornography on children and young people in Australia. We certainly stepped away from the day thinking about how we can further start and facilitate discussions on the topic.
We have also recently been a contributor to the discussion on technology and image-based sexual violence. Over the last few months, we were invited to attend several events: a roundtable in Parliament on deep-fake and AI-generated images, Refuge’s strategy launch, and a conversation with MOPAC and Tech UK on tech-enabled gender-based violence. Technology, and specifically AI, have been used to facilitate image-based abuse, and we are invested in solving this crisis as it fuels rape culture across the globe.
Important new research: Jon Yates and The Youth Endowment fund found that evidence-led RSE, which sets out the intention of reducing experiences like emotional abuse, sexual violence, stalking or harassment, and is delivered by experienced youth workers, can reduce violence by almost 20%. The research draws on 16 existing studies and was published in Tes magazine by the Sex Education Forum and Jon himself. The data only bolsters and justifies our approach to delivering education - outside workers are best placed to teach and discuss relationships with school-age children. We hope this research increases the support for our interventions in the years to come.
Recruitment
2024 is a big year at Everyone’s Invited for recruitment. We have been running the Education Programme for almost two years and are struggling to keep up with the interest. We are blessed to be in this position, as there is genuine interest in our impactful work, but we need more hands on deck! We recently recruited an Education Project Coordinator and an Operations Officer, and we cannot wait to see our team grow further. We are so thrilled to bring new people on board, and we hope this is the beginning of a new, stronger chapter over here at EI.
Fundraising
Growing as a charity comes with its challenges. Growing the team to deliver more impact comes with more fundraising needs. So, we are now extending our list of offerings of how you can help Everyone’s Invited. From monthly donations to physical challenges to school-based fundraising, to shopping and giving - the world is your oyster.
Fundraiser Spotlight: Milla is fundraising for Everyone’s Invited. Taking on the Bath marathon in August, Milla has set herself a £500 target - and is smashing through it with £225 raised so far! Support Milla here or take on your own challenge. You can take on any of the events on https://www.realbuzz.com/ for Everyone’s Invited - just select our name at registration.
Running isn’t your thing? You can support our mission by donating below.
Fancy doing something else to fundraise? Please email our Fundraising Officer, Lisa, at lisa@everyonesinvited.uk
Website: everyonesinvited.uk
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Twitter: @ei_movement
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