In these challenging times, I’m sharing with you here the headlines and some responses from children during quarter 4 of Not in our community.

Not in our community is already seeing a significant increase in engagement from young people online (78,000 in the past 3 months) and we are working with partners to provide support at this time.

In advance of us preparing the annual report for Not in our community 2019/20, Gail Mettyear has asked me to share with you a few key points and outcomes from the 3 months that could be valuable.

1. Impact: increased levels of engagement

Engagements in quarter 4 (January to March 2020) have exceed 78,000 and are 48% increase compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Alongside this the cost per engagement continues to fall.

2. Outcomes: Continued changing behaviours on prevention of grooming:

A selection of comments from young NIOC followers when asked how has “NIOC helped you?” January to March 2020:

“I also got groomed and I warned all the girls at my school who followed him on Insta. He was later sent to prison.”

“One of my friends became quite moody and reclusive. As it turned out she had a lot of older men on her phone asking her about drugs and nudes and other stuff. I wouldn’t have reported it without seeing our campaign as I would have thought she’d just added them herself for attention.”

“My friend was being sexually exploited and she asked me how to reply to a text and she let me flick through her texts so I told her to go to the police and she did and the guy was arrested and it turned out he raped two other girls leading them on the same way he did to my friend.”

“I spotted the signs and behaviours and got help.”

“It helped me to speak to a trusted adult about it.”

“It has helped me notice the signs in a relationship that was unhealthy.”

“Helped me offer advice to someone I know who may be at risk of grooming and exploitation.”

“I’ve been able to tell my friends if people seem suspicious, and I’ve been able to tell them the signs.”

“I helped a friend speak up and get help when she was being groomed.”

“Sometimes I wonder about my friends, but NIOC has helped me to ask.”

3. Continuing to giving a voice to survivors.

Online feedback from survivors in the past 12 months:

“Hi, I think your page is going to help so many young people! I was wondering if I could share my story?

…. Thank you for expressing my story, I wouldn’t change anything you have written.

… Hi, I have just seen the post . Thank you for sharing my story and being so supportive through the process ”

“My ordeal is over now but I want to help people who are just as vulnerable as I was.”

“I can’t get over what happened, so I want to use my experiences to do good, to be able to spread awareness or to make it better for children in care.

I have not known how to do this until my friend shared your post. Is there a way I can become involved in this movement and help ?

“Thank you for getting back in touch with me. I feel that I am ready to talk about what happened so that it can make a difference to someone else’s life, that the things that happened have some positive.

I can’t change what happened, but if I can share with you what happened and that helps stop these things happening to others or helps other young people come forward then I believe it will give me some kind of closure and help me to as well as others.”

You will have no doubt seen the media reports and share concern that the pandemic and lockdown can mean increased vulnerability and risks for young people. In this time of crisis, the power of social media is coming into its own.

The annual report will be produced in April.