1 in 20 children are sexually abused. But that’s only a conservative estimate.

Become the person a child can tell. If you don’t, who will?

Who we are

Our mission is to dramatically reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse. We do this through targeted professional training, policy advocacy, and awareness campaigns. Our work is deeply personal, driven by what would have helped us to speak out sooner.

David Miles

is a marketing consultant and trainer. He experienced sexual abuse from two different teachers during his time at boarding school. He helps us to raise awareness of how abusers operate, and to campaign for the introduction of mandatory reporting laws.

Tim Verity

is a journalist and writer who has worked in regional and national news media since 2010. He is also a survivor of child sexual abuse and, in 2017, successfully prosecuted the relative who abused him as a child.

Siobhan Ballan (born Pyburn)

was the youngest survivor of child sexual abuse to speak out publicly, by sharing her story on television at the age of 17. Becoming a mother recently has strengthened her motivation to deliver powerful live training which puts direct experience at the heart of everything we do.

Margo Horsley

is the founder of youth charity Fixers and an advocate for ‘voice as value’ and the impact it can have on people and society. She has had a ‚high-profile‘ career in broadcasting and social action, and joins us as a Director.

Our values

The following principles underpin all of our work:

1.
Survivor engagement

‘Nothing about us, without us!’ Survivor engagement is a top priority. Our training is designed and delivered exclusively by people who have lived experience. Siobhan and Tim have direct experience of abuse within the family, whereas David’s personal experience is of abuse within an institutional (school) setting. We will work to include more survivors over time, thus broadening the depth of experience we can draw from in our work.

2.
Transparency

We have hidden a terrible secret for most of our childhood and we aren’t hiding anymore. We welcome participants to ask us anything during our training - all those awkward questions about this acutely sensitive topic. The value of transparency also goes for how Beam Project is run: we share everything from our annual report to our pricing and strategy, where not listed publicly then available on request. We retain scans of the original feedback forms from our training events held in 2017-2019 which say things like:

‘very inspiring and illuminating, emotive issue but presented in a very effective manner,’ and ‘your input and honesty, learning, developmental areas, and overall presentation will be invaluable to their [child protection police officers’] training’.

3.
Candour

We’ve noticed that there is a lot of problematic jargon in safeguarding. Jargon sometimes gives stigma a place to hide itself. We therefore aim to ‘write how we talk’ as much as possible whilst also recognising that this issue is complex and requires a nuanced view in so many respects.

4.
Effectiveness

Does our work actually work? No one has the ‘answer’ to child sexual abuse, but we want to be able to say our work reduced it. We are keen to receive and review regular feedback so that we can continue to build a case that what we do matters. It is almost impossible to prove in a straight line that we were directly responsible for a reduction in child sexual abuse, but insofar as we can collect evidence to suggest so, we will do that.

The story so far

2008

Siobhan begins her project with youth charity Fixers at age 17, creating a video and website for people who have experienced child sexual abuse.

2009

The project receives a Vinspired Transform National Award for ‘exceptional community impact.’

2010

Siobhan is named ‘national woman of courage’ by bestselling author Lesley Pearse

Her story appears in the ‘real life’ section of Cosmopolitan magazine in the October issue.

2010 – 2013

Siobhan completes a law degree at the University of Exeter whilst trying to set up a support group for students who have experienced sexual violence. Unfortunately, the idea is rejected due to concerns about how such support might negatively affect academic performance.

2014-2016

We write for various publications with a safeguarding focus, such as Simply ChildSafe and the Journal of Family Health.

Siobhan presents at the first national NHS safeguarding Conference and started her YouTube channel.

2017

Beam Project is founded.

The original Dare To Ask training is designed and facilitated exclusively by people with direct experience of child sexual abuse.

2018

Siobhan appears on ITV Meridian to celebrate ten years since completing the Fixers project.

2019

We continue to deliver training and conference speeches throughout the UK, impacting 1000s of professionals.

2020-2022

All live training is put on hold because of Covid. We do a few webinars but they lack the same direct impact as face-to-face appraisal.

During this time, Siobhan also suffers a personal loss and stops leading the project.

2023

Siobhan does some consulting work with the Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, and goes on maternity leave.

2024

Beam Project relaunches as a Charitable Interest Company (CIC) and wins a Stephen Lloyd Award, providing early-stage funding and pro bono support via its networks.

Siobhan shares her story at TEDxNHS, raising awareness of the mandatory reporting problem and need for survivor-led interventions.

Into the future…

We are currently developing the strategic plan for 2025. It will be available here by the end of 2024.