The Bystander Intervention Programme at UCC developed in 2016 by Professor Louise Crowley of the School of Law educates and empowers participants to recognise all forms of sexual harassment and violence and empowers them individually and collectively to make safe and effective interventions. Following the Women of Honour revelations, a report was published by the Independent Review Group in March 2023 which identified the need for systemic behavioural change within the Defence forces. As part of the response to this the Defence Forces implemented a series of measure aimed at changing the culture.

Delivery of the SERR (Sexual Ethics and Respectful Relationships) Programme by UCC Experts will play a significant role initiating the programme. UCC Consulting supported UCC’s Bystander Intervention Programme to successfully tender for the delivery of a mandatory SERR training programme and has subsequently negotiated the contracts and invoicing for this project.

Professor Crowley (Director) commenced the delivery of the consultancy project, delivering SERR 4-hour workshops, designed and developed by the Defence Forces to reflect the unique military environment, with expert input by Professor Crowley in September 2023, with a commitment to deliver 8 trainings per month over 9 months. The workshops are being delivered in-person by Prof Crowley at sixteen locations nationwide for the Irish Army, Air Corps and Navy.

This is the first training of its kind to be delivered within the Irish Defence Forces and Prof Crowley has embedded research in the delivery of the training in order to assess the participant learning experience, the impact of the training on understanding and capacity, and an assessment of evidence of attitudinal and cultural change amongst participants, and more broadly across the Defence Forces, insofar as is possible.

This case study originally appeared in UCC Innovation's Impact Report for 2023, which can be read here.