Wandsworth Mediation Service has been running community training sessions for many years, helping people to communicate better and improve the way they manage conflict. Our vision is to both help those in conflict and help prevent it by helping people to understand what they are feeling, express themselves and listen to others.

We are delighted to partner with Protection Approaches to offer Active Bystander training that complements our vision, by giving people practical tools when they see or hear prejudice and hatred.

This free 3-hour interactive online course is led by identity-based violence prevention charity Protection Approaches and has been developed in partnership with Britain's East and Southeast Asian Network (besea.n).

The expert-led sessions see participants guided through a series of discussions to explore how they can play a role in tackling identity-based harms in their community, school, or place of work.

The training is for you if you don’t know how to respond when:

A friend or family member used outdated and / or offensive language
You hear comments by colleagues you disagree with
You see someone you don’t know say something prejudicial to a stranger
You are unsure how to react to situations in the moment

You will learn:

What it means to be an active bystander: through group discussion the participants explore what being an active bystander means to them
Standing up for those being targetted: working through a series of scenarios, participants consider and learn what they can do when they encounter prejudice, harassment, or identity-based violence such as a racist attack in a supermarket or an inappropriate comment from a colleague
Proactive prevention: returning to the scenarios participants reflect on the root causes of prejudice and discrimination before discussing ways they could contribute to dismantling those root causes and to building safer, more inclusive, and just communities.

Joining details for the session will be emailed to participants 48 hours ahead of the workshop. Spaces are very limited so please cancel if you are no longer able to make the session so that your ticket can be released to another participant.

Active Bystander Training with WMS + PA