Abstract

The Stop Sexual Violence (Stop SV) project has been established with European partners from Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. A key aim of the project is to develop community coalitions and training for nightlife staff so that they can recognise and effectively respond to and prevent sexual violence in the night-time economy. To inform the content of the training, a systematic literature review has been conducted exploring the nature, prevalence and consequences of, and risk factors for, sexual violence in nightlife settings; and identify interventions to prevent and respond to sexual violence in nightlife settings. Subsequently, the training programme was developed consisting of both a manual and educational sessions. In Spring 2018, the STOP SV training programme will be used to train 180 nightlife workers across Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic. An evaluation of the training will be conducted to assess the impact of the training on participant knowledge of, and attitudes towards sexual violence, and bystander behaviours. In addition, it will explore nightlife workers experience of sexual violence. Finally, it will aim to identify any areas for refinement and/or development of the training programme. Research methods will include interviews with trainers and surveys with trainees (pre and immediately post training, and at 3 months follow-up). Findings from the evaluation will be used to inform the development and finalisation of the training programme. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the literature review and training programme content, and a more detailed summary of the training evaluation, including research methods, key findings and implications for the development of the training programme. Such learning is critical to developing policy and prevention efforts to prevent and address sexual violence in nightlife settings across Europe, and beyond.