A Lanarkshire college has been accepted to implement a new charter to help tackle gender based violence in further and higher education.
South Lanarkshire College, based in East Kilbride, will take on the full EmilyTest Charter as part of its ongoing commitment to tackle the issue.
EmilyTest is a Scottish charity working to improve prevention, intervention and support concerning gender-based violence.
The charity was created in 2016 following the death of undergraduate student, Emily Drouet in Aberdeen, who took her own life after being subjected to a campaign of gender-based violence from a fellow student.
South Lanarkshire College was one of only two colleges in Scotland to take part in the charter pilot earlier this year and it looks forward to building upon the already excellent work that has taken place.
As part of the pilot, it recently received its SLC Impact and Evaluation Report which clearly outlined successes, problems, barriers to change and opportunities for change.
The report provided overwhelmingly positive feedback on the important work that the college had started both as part of the pilot and earlier work using the Equally Safe Strategy.
A college spokesperson said: "South Lanarkshire College has been committed to tackling gender based violence for many years and it has been extremely beneficial to work with EmilyTest to help review the work that has been taking place.
"We very much look forward to seeing how we can build upon and improve on the support services already in place for our students and staff.
"Successes highlighted by EmilyTest include the fact that tackling the issue of gender based violence has been taken onboard from a ‘whole institution’ approach, with engagement across the college including from senior leadership through to our Student Association.
"Our cross-college working group has created a space where teams can openly discuss and review the work undertaken, as well as what is required for moving forward."
"A new action plan and theory of change documents have outlined how we intend to address all the EmilyTest Charter principles."
South Lanarkshire College will continue to highlight and raise awareness of gender based violence, as well as the support services that are available both within the college and in the local community.
This focus on visibility and the college's zero-tolerance approach to GBV were particularly commended by the report by EmilyTest charity.
The college spokesperson added: "Going forward we intend to increase this awareness of gender based violence through both staff and student training, ongoing campaigns and expanding on our partnership working.
"For further details on the support already available at the college, please visit our dedicated gender based violence prevention page on our website."
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