NV! Co-development and facilitator training
RECRUITMENT
NV! content was drafted and refined through a peer-review process and also incorporating feedback from female students and staff who were recruited to be part of the development phase and became facilitators in piloting the intervention. We tested and refined NV! further through two phases, first, by delivering NV! to a small group of 17 female students and student support staff who were recruited through adverts posted around the campuses to become facilitators and then delivering it to eight groups of female students in different campuses in a pilot. The criteria for recruitment as a facilitator included being a young women ages 18–30; either a student or student support staff member in the selected institution; had passion and interest to learn more about sexual violence and how to prevent it; and who confirmed their availability to facilitate workshops in the pilot phase.Facilitators were trained on facilitation and interpersonal communication skills, using participatory learning approaches, gender equality and sexuality, managing small youth group dynamics, WenDo self-defense tactics and workshop administrative skills. The first training was held at the SAMRC offices over nine days and aimed to introduce the NV! content to them as participants. After this, they were introduced to and rehearsed the facilitation methods used to deliver NV! content. During this first training, their feedback was collated together with the research team’s observations and used to further revise the NV! manual. The second refresher training was held two months after the first training and over seven days. It was aimed to alert the facilitators to the revisions in the manual, to rehearse delivering NV! and to enhance facilitation skills as well as to prepare them to implement and administer NV! workshops in their campuses.