
Safe and Sound go into schools, throughout Derbyshire, to work with young people to deliver active bystander training, empowering and giving confidence to young people to stand up for their friends and intervene where necessary.
Safe and Sound
Derbyshire’s leading child exploitation charity, Safe and Sound, has been appointed to work with more than 10,000 school pupils across the city and county to empower and give them the confidence to stand up for their friends and intervene safely. Safe and Sound has devised an active bystander programme entitled ‘I Can I Will’ with the objective to keep young people safe from harm.
Pupils aged ten to 18 will benefit from the delivery of Safe and Sound’s ‘I Can I Will’ workshops in the coming year which will be adapted dependant on the age group and SEND requirements. The workshops will equip participants with the knowledge of how to speak up and safely intervene in situations that make them feel uncomfortable. This will include situations where they witness bullying, violence and knife crime. The programme is in response to an 11% increase in serious violence in Derbyshire between 2019 and 2022 – particularly involving young people.
A survey by Safe and Sound of over 600 young people across the city and county also found that 50% were aware of violence taking place in their area and 37% had experienced violence personally; 45% were most worried about knife crime followed by 28% concerned about gangs.
How does the training work?
Our Bystander programme I Can, I Will aims to help young people to be active bystanders. It will enable young people to:
- Challenge and ask questions of themselves and their friends and be able to decide how they can help and support each other.
- Understand who serious violence affects and the consequences for themselves, victims, friends, families, and the offenders.
- Who they can turn to for help.
Our workshops encourage discussion and participation and provide the opportunity to ask questions without judgement.

What is a Bystander?
A bystander is a person who is there when something happens and who sees it but does nothing about it. An active bystander means knowing when someone’s behaviour is not okay or scary and doing something.
Who can be a Bystander?
All of us. We will be a bystander sometime in our lives but we can:
