Grassroots youth-led NFP expands access to consent education programs

Claire Halliday
Claire Halliday

A youth-led not-for-profit leading the delivery of consent and respectful relationships education across Australia has announced the expansion of its Victorian team to increase access to consent education in Victorian schools, universities, and TAFEs following growing demand.

Through its programs, Consent Labs has worked with over 80,000 high school students, tertiary students, parents and educators around Australia to change the culture around consent since starting program delivery in 2021. 

The teaching of consent is mandatory in all Victorian government schools and, in 2022, it passed affirmative consent laws to make it clear that everyone has a responsibility to get consent before engaging in sexual activity. 

As a result, Consent Labs has recently experienced high demand for its programs across Victoria and has opened a base in South Yarra, Melbourne. The business is currently expecting to reach more than 10,000 people in 2024 and deliver at least seven times the number of programs in comparison to 2023. 

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Tackling shocking statistics

One in five women and one in sixteen men have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. In Victoria, 9,537 sexual offences were reported in 2023, equating to 26 sexual offences a day, according to Crime Statistics Agency Victoria

In 2024 so far, Consent Labs has already reached more than 25,000 people nationally. According to feedback forms from Consent Labs’ workshops between 2021-2024, 66 per cent of students rated their knowledge of topics around consent as “good” before a session, which rose to 93 per cent after the session. Furthermore, 89 per cent learned something practical they could incorporate into their daily life, 91 per cent rated the sessions as “engaging” or “very engaging”, and 84 per cent wanted more workshops from Consent Labs in the future. 

Parents and carers have also benefited from Consent Labs’ approach to empowering students’ communities and ecosystem. One parent/carer from Iona College in Geelong, said, “The information was so valuable and really helped me to understand how I could start a conversation with my children in a safe, neutral and respectful space. I would change my ‘awkward’ response at the start to ‘comfortable’. That’s a big shift in two hours.”

Consent Lab’s growth comes at a time when consent education has become a federal government priority. It recently announced a $77.6 million investment for schools to deliver consent education nationwide, and launched its $40 million ‘Consent Can’t Wait’ campaign to encourage Australian adults to improve their understanding of consent to support more informed conversations amongst themselves and young people. 

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“We can no longer ignore the vital role of teaching consent from an early age as a means of addressing the rising rates of sexual assault and violence in Australia,” says CEO and Co-Founder of Consent Lab Angelique Wan.

“At Consent Labs, we want to ensure every high school and university student, as well as their educators, parents and caregivers, has access to evidence-based and age-appropriate education on consent and healthy relationships.”

She says expanding Consent Lab’s Victorian team will allow them to reach more people “at a time when it has never been more important”.

CEO and Co-Founder of Consent Lab Angelique Wan.

Responding to significant demand

“We saw significant demand coming from schools, universities, and TAFEs in Victoria, and we’re expecting to deliver at least seven times the number of programs in 2024 in comparison to last year – that’s a huge jump, and our teams were committed to ensuring educators and students were getting the best services possible from people on the ground,” Wan told EducationDaily.

“This means lower costs for both sides as we now don’t have to fly our experts from interstate, and, of course, the dozens and dozens of hours saved in travel time.

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“Most importantly, we wanted to have teams on the ground in Victoria because we were seeing specific demand from schools in regional areas who were not getting access to consent and respectful relationships education at all.

“Service providers simply found it too hard, expensive, time-consuming or otherwise to make the effort to go there. That’s not good enough, and I’m particularly excited to see how our increased capacity in Victoria will improve our support for students in regional and remote parts of the state.”

Supporting regional and remote students

Wan says demand among school leaders, educators, and students is just as high in regional schools as it is in metropolitan areas.

“However, the willingness of service providers to get to those schools is dismal. Recently, our team travelled to a school in regional Victoria that had six students. All six of them were extremely engaged in the program, eager to learn, and wanting to make the most of what our facilitators had to offer,” she told EducationDaily.

“If it weren’t for Consent Labs, we were told that school would have simply had to go without. For an already stretched education workforce, it would have been stressful to find a way to deliver those courses on their own, and for the students, they wouldn’t have received the evidence-based and expert materials they deserve.”

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Wan says it is a priority for Consent Labs to bring their programs to all corners of the country, rural
or regional, so that no student misses out on essential consent education.

“A regional school should absolutely expect the same facilitators and quality program as their metro
counterparts, with a bespoke approach that caters to the unique context of their students. We work collaboratively with schools to ensure programs delivered are relevant to their cohort.”

Wan told EducationDaily there are two main ways Consent Labs aim to help teachers, “who often tell us they feel under-equipped and uncomfortable with delivering consent education”.

“The first is to collaborate with the school to take this additional work off teachers’ plates. We have a
range of services, workshops, and programs for schools that are evidence-based, inclusive, and proven to drive tangible outcomes in educating students about consent and respectful relationships,” she says.

“The second is to ‘teach the teachers’. The teachers we speak to aren’t confident today in delivering consent education, but they are passionate about ensuring their students get the best and most impactful consent education available.

“Research shows that having a whole-of-community approach to consent education is critical to ensuring young people get the support and information they need. Consequently, for some teachers, the training may involve upskilling to a point where they can facilitate their own workshops, while for other teachers it may focus more on how they can be an active participant in their students’ communities by creating safe spaces for discussions around consent.”

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Evidence-based, inclusive, and unbiased consent education is, Wan told EducationDaily, a proven preventative measure that can help to eradicate sexual violence, “and this end goal is what drives Consent Labs to do our work each and every day”.

“However, to get a step closer to eradicating sexual violence, we need a multi-pronged approach involving preventative measures, as well as support services for those currently experiencing violence. At every stage, we need a whole-of-community mindset, which has to include young people, families, carers, community leaders, business executives, working professionals, politicians and political leaders, advocates, and more,” she says.

“While schools can act as a hub in the community to influence positive change, it is one piece of the puzzle and adequate funding and support are required at all levels if we want to truly eradicate sexual violence.”

In the instances where there is hesitation towards school-based consent education, Consent Labs offers programs for parents and caregivers to invite meaningful conversations and explain the evidence-base that underpins such education.

“Consent Labs will always respect the right of the family, whether that be for their child to engage or disengage with school-based consent education,” Wan says.

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“Whether a child receives consent education at school or not, Consent Labs always encourage families to have open conversations about consent within their households.

“This can be a fantastic opportunity for the family to overlay and continue to instil their values into a child’s understanding of healthy relationships.”

Championing professional development for teachers

But to sustain the rollout of consent education, Wan says two key factors are essential: funding and teacher development.

“The federal government has committed a significant amount of funding to help schools incorporate consent education into their curriculum, and this is fantastic to see,” she told EducationDaily.

“Currently, the funding is for the next five years and what we really need is assurance that funding will go not just beyond five years, but into the indefinite future. Now that consent education is part of the national curriculum for years K-10, we need to treat it with the same long-term and consistent lens that we would for any other area of study.

“Much of that funding should go to supporting teachers and empowering them through ongoing development and training. The more confident and skilled our teachers are in delivering consent education, the more impactful that education will be.

“Today, our teachers are overburdened and leaving the workforce in concerning numbers. There are a range of initiatives the government is implementing to counter this, and for consent education it will come down to championing teachers through sufficient development programs.”

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Claire Halliday has an extensive career as a full-time writer - across book publishing, copywriting, podcasting and feature journalism - for more than 25 years. She lives in Melbourne with children, two border collies and a grumpy Burmese cat. Contact: claire.halliday[at]brandx.live