Action Breaks Silence is an educational charity, established to create a world where women and girls can live their lives free from the fear of gender-based violence and the threat of such violence.

To achieve this, a multi-pronged approach is adopted and actioned through the delivery of the Action Breaks Silence Community Intervention in schools’ settings. Our Founder & CEO, Debi Steven (MA, London Met, School of Social Sciences specialising in Women and Child Abuse) has worked alongside an international community of activists, academics and youth to design the Community Intervention aimed at profoundly changing the narrative on GBV. A whole schools approach , (developed by Ava) is used to engage, educate and empower ‘’all members of the school community, including school governors, senior management, staff, students and parents’’ to end GBV in schools and the surrounding communities.

The Action Breaks Silence Community Intervention which tackles sexual harassment and sexual violence, also includes strategies which address gender inequality and toxic masculinity that underpins this behaviour. The design and delivery of the intervention is guided by the Social Norms and Active Bystander Theories.

• Train the Trainer Programme

• The Empowerment through Self-Defence Workshop

• The 16-hour Primary School Programme

  o The Empowerment Through Self-Defence and Active Bystander Programme for girls.

  o The Hero Empathy and Active Bystander Programme for boys 

• Action Breaks Silence Youth Ambassador Programme 

• Approximately 85,000 women are raped and over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted in England and Wales every year.

• Sexual violence is even more prevalent for younger women as one in three teenage girls has experienced some form of sexual violence from a partner before they are 18.

• Half of all young people (irrespective of gender) reported emotional abuse, most often being shouted at or being called names.  

• One fifth of young people are exposed to physical violence (a greater proportion are female) and experience as much abuse in relationships as adults.

• On average, two women in England and Wales are killed every week by a current or former male partner.

• The UK police receive a call every minute about domestic abuse, 89% of which are about a woman being abused by a man.