Target Population

Age appropriate educational materials for children aged 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, and 14-18 years of age who are at risk of being sexually victimised and/or perpetrating acts of sexual violence themselves. The materials available are for practitioners seeking to facilitate the intervention, however it should be noted that as of January 2020, they are only available in French.

Delivery Organisation 

CRIAVS – Centre Ressource pour les Intervenants auprès Auteurs de Violences Sexuelles: Languedoc Roussillon. This translates to the Resource Centre for Facilitators/Practitioners Working with Perpetrators of Sexual Violence in Languedoc-Roussillon, which is a southern district of France on the Mediterranean coast. They are a treatment, research, and advocacy group associated with the Central University Hospital of Montpellier. The centre employ psychiatrists and psychologists who specialise in forensic psychiatry, adolescent psychiatry, pre-pubertal child psychiatry, criminology, victimology, clinical psychopathology, psychodynamic therapy, and cyber paraphilia research. On their website, they state that their main aims are to train practitioners to provide therapeutic interventions for perpetrators of sexual violence, develop research tools, promote the prevention of sexual violence through health and online safety education programmes in schools, advise the criminal justice system on how to reduce the prevalence of sexual violence as well as rehabilitation strategies for offenders, and create databases of evidence-based interventions.

Mode and Context of Delivery

The intervention notes, guides, and worksheets included in this toolbox are all designed to be delivered to a group of 10-15 children in a local community setting they feel comfortable in.

Level/Nature of Staff Expertise Required 

The Project BOAT toolbox is aimed towards teachers, educators, and those with a health and social care background who regularly work with at-risk children between the ages of 5-18. The toolbox comes with a 50-page manual that outlines psychological theory around child psychosexual development, current research on healthy relationship development/maintenance, current slang used by minors for sexual activity, and French federal law on both online and offline sexual offences. Previous knowledge of psychological theory is not necessary but would be beneficial for effective delivery of the intervention sessions.  

Intensity/Extent of Engagement with Target Groups

The intensity and extent of the intervention may be decided by the facilitator, as the group work activities are meant to be chosen according to the individual aims of said facilitator. The authors of Project BOAT highly recommend holding a minimum of three sessions with the same group and group leader per theme. The methods of group work are diverse and change according to the targeted age group. There are 134 modules total to choose from. Delivery methods range from group discussion, quizzes, skits, role-play exercises, dancing, relaxation techniques, cartoon-drawing, and journal-entry prompts.

Description of Intervention

Project BOAT is divided into five themes but the following three have been considered to be the most relevant to the aims of ECSA: relationships & sexuality, online safety, and understanding the law & identifying problematic/harmful behaviours. Each theme is divided into sections for children aged between 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, and 14-18. The following list describes a few of the sessions included in the materials of the relationships & sexuality theme. The other two themes may also be found in the ECSA database.

Relationships & Sexuality Course Education Materials

Please note that all of the intervention worksheets/materials are currently only available in French.

Session Name	Age Range	Method of Delivery	Aims of Session
Like Cats and Dogs	5-7	Discussion Group and word association	Teaching which words mean which feelings, what it means to be a friend
Acceptable or Not?	5-7	Theatre exercise and non-graded quiz	Understanding that controlling and possessive behaviour can be harmful to others
Our Changing Bodies	8-10	Discussion group with conversation prompts	Increasing awareness of the physiological changes that come with puberty and to respect the changes others are undergoing.
Teasing or Harassment?	8-10	Scenario exercises with debrief questions after each one	Teaching what constitutes online and offline bullying behaviour.
All's Well that Ends Well	11-13	Thought experiment and reflective writing exercise	Teaching how to end a friendship/relationship tactfully and with minimal emotional fallout.
Sexting	11-13	Detailed scenario exercise with moral/ethical debrief discussion questions	Increasing awareness of constitutes online and offline sexual harassment and the legal consequences of sharing underage nude photos without the person’s consent
From Fantasy to Reality	14-18	Multiple scenario exercise with discussion questions	Telling the differences between fantasies and sexual fantasies, consent in those sexual encounters.
When Love Hurts	14-18	Open discussion group with prompts	Recognising warning signs of abuse and violence in romantic relationships.

 

Evaluation

To date, no published studies have evaluated this intervention.

References

Link to website of the CRIAVS research group: http://www.chu-montpellier.fr/fr/criavs/presentation/

Link to website of the information PDF of Project BOAT: http://www.chu-montpellier.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Pole_Psychiatrie/CRIAVS/BOATPlaquetteMAJ_0117.pdf

Contact details

CRIAVS-LR Lapeyronie Hospital 371

av. Du Doyen Giraud

34295 Montpellier Cedex 5

France

 

Phone. 04.67.33.85.77

Fax. 04.67.33.07.80

Email: criavs-lr@chu-montpellier.fr

RATING: Pioneering

Information correct at January 2020