Love Shouldn’t Hurt was a multi-agency campaign funded by the York and North Yorkshire Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning (OPFCC), part of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.
It also involved the tour of educational theatre workshop It’s Not Love in schools across the region.
It’s Not Love was designed by the NSPCC with York St John University to help support teachers and professionals working with children and young people in secondary schools to explore healthy and unhealthy friendships and relationships.
The play was performed to 1,064 children in schools across the region as part of the campaign, along with workshops to help children engage with the themes and topics it covers. The performance was also shared digitally to teachers in secondary schools across the region, meaning it has been made available to more than 3,000 pupils since January and can be used again and again in future terms.
The campaign also featured Listen & Learn sessions highlighting services and support for professionals across the region which saw 168 professionals who work with children across North Yorkshire take part.
Topics included parental conflict, misogyny, adolescent-to-parent abuse, and cultural harms. The series featured contributions from the NSPCC, Childline, the Independent Domestic Abuse Service (IDAS), North Yorkshire Youth, and the Halo Project.
Gail Sayles, NSPCC Local Campaigns Manager, said: “Love Shouldn’t Hurt has been a wonderful campaign, and it’s brilliant to have reached so many people across the region.
“Although the main phase of the campaign has finished, resources like It’s Not Love and Talk Relationships will still be available to professionals and secondary schools. Our hope is that the work done this year will craft a legacy going forward to help children and young people across the region recognise healthy and unhealthy behaviours in relationships and help keep them safer as they grow up.”
To find out more about the NSPCC’s regional work, email YHandNECampaigns@nspcc.org.uk