Confidence to verbally and physical resist against non-partner harassment
NV! sessions focused on sexual assault risk reduction and provided information that participants can use to identify risky sexual assault situations, skills to resist unwanted sexual advances, using assertive language, as well as physical self-defence training. Some participants in the qualitative interviews at one year follow-up reported that they had found themselves in situations where they had applied the skills they acquired from NV! to diffuse situations in which they were at risk of sexual violence. Their narratives showed that participants were able to identify the behaviours of potential perpetrators from their communities and who they were not intimately involved with. They demonstrated confidence to respond verbally and to assertively communicate their disinterest to perpetrators; and when the men ignored them, they screamed to get the attention of other people or bystanders. For example, one participant shared, Some of the participants reported that they used physical self-defence tactics to push back against unwanted sexual advances and physical assaults by men in public spaces. For example, one participant shared that she had pushed away an older man while taking a taxi ride, “