Sex & Ethics Piloted in Wellington

A new sexual violence prevention programme Sex & Ethics is under way in Wellington with young people which teaches skills in ethical relating and intervening in potentially sexually unsafe situations.

The new programme is a move away from traditional sexual violence prevention programmes which tend to teach individual women how to manage risk to avoid sexual violence. The project is being funded by Ministry of Justice for two years and will be fully evaluated after six months.

Sex & Ethics was developed by Professor Moira Carmody from the University of Western Sydney by asking young people what they needed to know about sexual relationships. Sex & Ethics teaches young people a sexual ethics framework – a way to work out if a sexual encounter is caring for themselves, if they are aware of the desires of the other person, and how they can negotiate and ask for what they want, verbally and non-verbally. It covers all kinds of sexual encounters, and helps young people work out how to negotiate mutually satisfying, fun, healthy sex, whether in a long-term relationship or in a casual sexual encounter. The ethical bottom line is the absence of force, coercion or pressure. The Wellington Sexual Abuse Network (WSAN), a collaboration between Wellington Rape Crisis, Sexual Abuse HELP Foundation and WellStop, are co-ordinating the pilot.

Wellington Sexual Abuse Network is also developing a clinical workshop in 2010 for counsellors who want to incorporate Sex & Ethics into their one-on-one work. For more information please contact WSAN Sandra Dickson at wsanprevention@xtra.co.nz