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Good practice Imported

Active Bystander Communities — the UK's First Community-Based Bystander Programme Against Domestic Abuse

United Kingdom · Exeter · See the United Kingdom profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 55% 63/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A three-session bystander-training programme piloted with 70 community members in Exeter, Torquay and Gloucester produced large, statistically significant, durable reductions in domestic-violence myth acceptance, published in BMC Public Health (2020).

58
Pilot participants completing pre/post measures (2020)
0.83-1.24
Effect size (Cohen's d) across outcome measures (2020)
2-3 %
Backlash effect rate (2020)
Active Bystander Communities — the UK's First Community-Based Bystander Programme Against Domestic Abuse

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
University of Exeter Law School, with Public Health England, Bristol City Council, Devon County Council, Splitz Support Service and the Hollie Gazzard Trust
Period
2018–2020 (pilot and peer-reviewed evaluation); ongoing delivery via Kindling Interventions
Keywords
public health, domestic violence prevention, community education, bystander training

Context

Active Bystander Communities (ABC) adapts a university bystander-intervention curriculum, the Intervention Initiative, for the general public. Commissioned by Bristol City Council and developed by Dr Rachel Fenton at the University of Exeter Law School with Public Health England, Devon County Council, Splitz Support Service and the Hollie Gazzard Trust.

Activities

ABC delivers three facilitator-led two-hour sessions combining film, role-play and active learning to teach residents how to safely recognise and interrupt situations of domestic violence and abuse.

Results

A 2020 peer-reviewed evaluation piloted the programme with 70 adults (58 completing pre/post measures, 36 followed up at 4 months) recruited from community organisations in Exeter, Torquay and Gloucester. Using validated psychometric scales, the study found large, statistically significant improvements (p<0.0001; Cohen's d = 0.83-1.24) in domestic-violence myth rejection, bystander efficacy, behavioural intent and knowledge of the law, sustained at four-month follow-up, with minimal backlash effects (2-3%).

Conclusions

The published evidence is a single-arm pre/post pilot with a small sample and no randomised control group; no published cost-effectiveness or population-level domestic-violence-incidence data exist. The model has since been commercialised via Kindling Interventions, but independent evidence of that scaled rollout has not been published.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
trained facilitators delivering three two-hour sessions, University of Exeter Law School evaluation team, Splitz Support Service and Hollie Gazzard Trust as delivery/referral partners

Conditions for success

  • adapting an evidence-based university curriculum for a general community audience
  • combining film, role-play and active learning in short, facilitator-led sessions

Common failure modes

  • small sample (n=58-70), single-arm design, no randomised control group
  • no published cost-effectiveness or population-level incidence data
  • independent evidence of the commercialised scaled rollout (Kindling Interventions) has not been published

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National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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