Strengthening our culture of consent
The University of Kent aims to be a positive and inclusive community for all staff and students, and provide a place of work and study where respect and healthy relationships thrive.
We are committed to ensuring that our approach against sexual misconduct and assault is transparent and clear to both staff and students – that is it not tolerated and what the avenues are for reporting and obtaining support should it happen. To make a positive culture shift requires not only clarifications of sanctions and process, but a proactive approach to cultivate and strengthen a culture of consent in our university community – which is why we have launched a sex-positive campaign.
We have put together a student facing consent campaign page which is a useful resource for staff too. In our campaign page we give information about what consent is and share some tips on how to ensure they have got consent, and how they can give consent clearly to their partner(s).
Celebrating Consent Day
As part of this ongoing campaign, we invite all staff and students to attend, learn and participate with us on Wednesday 9 February: Celebrating Consent Day!
Join us in Darwin Conference Suite from 13.00 for an afternoon of interactive and engaging sessions. Get your free tickets via Eventbrite where you can book tickets for as many or as few sessions as you would like!
13.00-14.00 The World of Online Dating: find your perfect partner and stay safe
We are starting our afternoon with a workshop on online dating. METRO and Protection Against Stalking (PAS) will be telling us about how to stay safe in the online dating world, and how to create a profile and enjoy getting know people.
15-15.15 Sex & Empowerment with Ruby Rare
For the second session we will be joined by Ruby Rare, a sex-educator, artist, and body-positive champion. She’s on a mission to engage people of all ages in positive conversations about sex and pleasure. You can expect a talk that moves away from the typical heteronormative sex-ed and addresses the ways in which we can tackle the stigmas around consent education and put pleasure first.
Ruby is a proud ambassador for Brook, the UK’s leading sexual health charity for young people, co-founder of life drawing collective Body Love Sketch Club, and has spoken at TedXLondon, Women of the World Festival, and on BBC Woman’s Hour. She is listed as one of 24 figures making a positive change to social media in Cosmopolitan’s 2021 Positivity Index.
15.30-17.00 Crafting Consent: a collaborative artwork
Our final session invites all participants to reflect on sex-positivity, empowerment, and consent by making a contribution to our community artwork. We will be providing materials and food! Stick around for a chat with our speakers and each other, have time to discuss your ideas and responses while we create a lasting memento of this snapshot in time of Kent’s journey to a more inclusive sex-positive culture.
We hope to see you there! Will you help us put a full stop to sexual assault and misconduct? Consent. Get it. Full Stop.
If you have any questions or want to collaborate on the Consent campaign at Kent, please email us at WellbeingEvents@kent.ac.uk