Community
Culture of consent promoted on summer camps
Youth leaders are receiving training from Jewish Women’s Aid
July 22, 2025 16:59
Youth leaders are receiving training from Jewish Women’s Aid
July 22, 2025 16:59As thousands of Jewish teenagers embark on summer camps and Israel tours, Jewish Women’s Aid (JWA) has launched a new training programme aimed at equipping youth movement leaders with the tools to promote healthy relationships, consent and safeguarding.
According to the organisation, the half-day course, which has already been rolled out to leaders from Bnei Akiva, FZY and RSY, takes a preventative approach, helping madrichim (leaders) and professional staff tackle “harmful behaviours” and build safe, supportive environments for young people navigating relationships away from home.
Until now, JWA has been working with leaders, giving them the means to help youth movements prevent negative cultures “and help them to create a positive one”, said Ilana Hutchinson, JWA’s co-director of outreach and prevention. This system would remain in place, she said, but the new training programme aimed to “help senior leaders implement a more reflective approach, which gives them the time and the tools to look closely at their movement’s culture and make meaningful change”.
The two-and-a-half-hour CPD-accredited course, adapted from a programme run by Durham University, “empowers senior leaders to take action and embed a culture of consent across their programmes”, said Hutchinson, adding that it would give youth leaders strategies “to support young people in building healthy relationships at a pivotal point in their development”.
FZY leader Jamie Smokler, 22, said: “What I’ve noticed most from leading previous camps was this really strong culture around being away from home with your age group. There’s a big focus on forming relationships. A lot of them wanted to find a girlfriend or boyfriend, or, at the very least, have a kiss on the last night of camp.”
He said that shows like Love Island had had an influence on the behaviour of participants. “I don’t think they watch shows or scroll through social media and say: ‘I want to be like that’, but the influence is there. You hear the teenagers using phrases you’d only get on shows like Love Island – things like ‘going for a chat’, which has a totally different meaning now. That kind of TV language has crept in subconsciously and is shaping how they behave.”
Madeleine Teper, a 20-year-old leader, who has taken part in the JWA course, said: “I think Covid has really affected how teenagers interact with each other. Some are really confident forming relationships and speaking to people, while others have barely spoken to the opposite sex. That gap feels even wider since the pandemic.
“Programmes like the one run by JWA are essential. They help us build safe, supportive relationships with young people and make sure we know how to handle situations if they arise.”
According to Hutchinson: “There’s a lot of work done in school but not enough about youth settings. It won’t happen overnight – we want to support movements throughout the year to give them the chance to really embed this attitude-change.”
To run courses for staff and youth leaders in your organisation, email: ilana@jwa.org.uk
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