MVP is designed to provide participants with the skills to intervene in problematic situations through discouragement and interruption. It does this through group sessions during which social scenarios involving a range of behaviours (e.g. bullying, sexting, harassment) are presented and role-played.
This is followed by an interactive discussion and responses to the scenario are then presented and considered, to teach the participants about appropriate actions that they could take and empower them to be proactive bystanders. The programme consists of two core sessions and a minimum of three optional sessions.
Sessions include 3 Introductory Sessions, and a further choice of 16 lesson plans, with topics: including insults, online abuse, being left out, rumours, dating abuse, controlling behaviour, sexting, sexual harassment in school, shaming/labelling, carrying weapons, homophobic bullying, transphobic bullying, viewing
Although the topic of the social scenario may vary in each session, the mode of delivery and core messages of MVP are the same.
The MVP programme consists of five core components that include:
- Exploring violence through a gendered lens: MVP facilitates debate on traditional and current social understanding of masculinity, femininity, sex and gender.
- Developing leadership: MVP is a leadership programme that encourages participants to be active bystanders in situations where people may walk away or remain silent. The programme facilitates the development of positive role models who are empowered to support and challenge peers.
- Using a bystander approach: Using a bystander approach individuals are not considered potential victims or perpetrators; instead, they are empowered to be active bystanders with the ability to support and challenge their peers in a safe way. The sessions focus on asking the ‘why’ question and allowing participants to have meaningful conversations which aim to construct and support healthy social norms. The approach includes noticing something is wrong, recognising it is wrong, deciding you have the personal responsibility to intervene, and having the skills and confidence to act.
- Exploring the scope of violent behaviour: MVP emphasises that violence includes all types of abuse including verbal, emotional, physical and sexual.
- Challenging victim blaming: MVP sessions aim to discuss the issue of victim blaming and emphasise that the only person to blame for violence or abuse is the perpetrator.