Mr. Shane De Rís:

It might be good to start with the content of the workshops that we employ in Trinity. They are modelled from NUIG's SMART consent. We remodelled it so it was less about teaching people what consent is and how to act and more about stimulating their own thought and understanding and conversations around consent.

The workshop takes a simple format and lasts about an hour or an hour and a half. It begins with a general warm-up session and ice breaker. We then use the FRIES model, which was originally employed by Planned Parenthood in the US. FRIES stands for freely given, retractable, informed, enthusiastic and specific. We then move on to case-by-case studies and examples. They are open-ended so it could be a relationship or something that is happening after a night out. We ask the students how this situation should proceed. That gets them thinking about what they would do in that situation. It is simple and does not take a lot to roll out but it is a matter of making them more accessible. We roll them out in the first year residence in Trinity Hall. It is a targeted population of first years and there was 100% attendance on their part. It is now a normal part of orientation.

To make it available to the whole college would require resources. We have trained student facilitators who, in partnership with someone from the student counselling service, facilitate the workshops. The counsellors and the training of the students are the resources required to carry out the workshops. There is now incredible demand from societies, sports clubs and college sports departments to roll the classes out to their members and the people who use their facilities and services. There are ways of rolling this out beyond the first year hall of residence. It is a matter of getting the resources to ensure we can do that.

The content is simple but it does work. The figures and feedback say that people feel more informed after they have sat through, and engaged with, the workshop. It is about creating a positive atmosphere around consent, rather than telling students what constitutes consent. It gets students thinking about what is consent. We are pleased with how it has gone. We need to make them more accessible.