Thanks for taking the time to visit this page.

I set up the Schools Consent Project almost four years ago to the date of the London marathon. A friend of mine had been sexually assaulted at work. I wanted to do something to stop that happening to other people. A quick Google taught me that we did not exist yet: there were similar organisations working on campus but nothing in schools, where conversations are most formative and where many navigate their first sexual experience. Even statutory Sex & Relationship Education, to be introduced in September 2019, has an ‘opt in’ module on consent.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, we don’t think consent is opt in.

So we developed a workshop that was relevant and accessible. It covers the legal definition of consent, key sexual offences, the age of consent, bystander intervention, responses to disclosure and options in the event of an attack.

Today, we have delivered this workshop to over 6000 young people across the UK. 89% of those surveyed feel more empowered about consent. We expanded from London to the North West, and we launch in Belfast later this year. We work closely with top law firms including Hogan Lovells, Reed Smith, Kingsley Napley, Charles Russell Speechlys and Hodge Jones Allen. We have picked up media coverage, including on BBC Panorama and BBC Newsnight, and we recently won an award from 10 Downing Street in recognition of the work we do.

But we're at a juncture. With an increasing profile, comes an increasing demand from schools, comes an increasing difficulty with which to manage the charity in hours we don’t have. Funding unlocks our potential to reach more young people. Donations go directly into a pot which funds our presence nationwide: on average, one paid part-time regional manager educates 150 young people about consent each month. That’s 150 young people more able to articulate their boundaries and respect them in others. As one participant wrote, “they taught me it was okay to say no”.

I’m running the London marathon because I believe that, with the right education, we can have safer classrooms, campuses, workplaces and juries.

Please help me in my goal, and help make 26.2 miles (!) more bearable, with your generous support.

Thank you.

Kate x
www.schoolsconsentproject.com