Advance and London's Violence Reduction collaborate on House of Commons event

September 15, 2026

Advance and the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit co-hosted an event at the House of Commons yesterday to showcase a new area of its work in early intervention and prevention of violence against women and girls.

This work has seen pilot workshops with young men and boys, aged 13-24, aimed at educating them about healthy relationships, recognising harmful behaviour and language and helping to install values of consent, equality and respect.

The Unsaid – Supporting Girls, Engaging Boys event was hosted by Ben Coleman, MP for Chelsea and Fulham and included speeches from Frances Rahman, Head of Young Women & Girls at Advance, and Karina Wane-Henry, Director of Strategy and Operations with the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).

The parliamentary round table event was also the perfect opportunity to preview Group Chat, a short animated film co-produced with the VRU and input from young men.

Ben Coleman MP said:

“We can’t talk enough not just about violence against young women and girls but the fact that we have to engage with boys and young men. This isn’t a problem for young women and girls; it’s a problem for the whole of society.

“We now need to encourage young men to stand up and be allies and I think the more that they can see and hear what you’re saying and realise that this is a problem they want to be part of sorting and it’s not just girls and young women, the better.

“A lot of fantastic charities like Advance have been working with young women and girls and you have other charities out there that are newer and have started to work with the manosphere and all the problems that creates. Advance is really one of those go-ahead charities that is bringing the two things together and that has to be the way it goes.”

Karina Wane-Henry said:

“We firmly believe that violence against women and girls is everyone’s business. Alongside our work with Advance, we recognise young people’s digital lives are not separate, and that we need to keep pace with rapidly evolving online spaces.

“That means applying our public health approach to intervene at a variety of key moments in a young person’s life, both in digital spaces and at home, school and in communities.

“With the Mayor’s investment, we are working to create opportunities for boys and young men to explore masculinity, relationships and identity. We will do this through targeted training for fathers, at school with sessions on masculinity and resilience, and in the community through a network of footballing mentors.

“This goes hand-in-hand with funding to deliver targeted support and mentoring for girls and young women affected by, or at heightened risk of, online misogyny, exploitation and abuse.”

Dali Kaur said:

“Advance as an organisation who truly values women’s lived experience – our foundation is listening to the women we support – took the decision to help change the narrative and look at Violence Against Women and Girls through a different lens.

“What Young Women and Girls tell us has value and they say we need to work alongside young men and boys. We are not saying tech abuse and online abuse doesn’t happen to everyone but as an organisation that supports Young Women and Girls we are here to advocate alongside them.

“Our focus groups looked at how to widen the reach outside of the women’s sector, and so we started workshops with young men and boys.”

When girls supported by Advance voiced that they should not carry the responsibility for preventing violence against women and girls alone, the organisation responded with the young men and boy workshops and the creation of Group Chat.”