Green Flags Campaign

During an SU Personal Safety Week, we asked students what their green flags are in their relationships with friends, family, partners or colleagues.  At the SU we wanted to showcase healthy and positive relationships. We had 28 responses over the week.

Here are what students have said their green flags are;

• I am loved
• I am very proud of my kids, they listen to me and are respectful
• Affective communication
• Gentleness
• Caring
• Nice
• A gift
• People feel safe and comfortable around me xx
• I am loved
• Leaves me the last nugget
• Appreciating that differing views are ok
• Good communication, trust and honesty
• Support
• I am a shoulder you can cry on, no matter what the topic is, I will help you
• Too smart to hate
• I love my family and friends
• You are helping others when they need help!
• The biggest green flag is understanding and keep talking to each other
• Caring
• I am listened to
• Supportive
• A team player
• Remembers my cycle and gets me care baskets every month
• I like conversations that are not 1-sided
• They support you
• Brings food
• Stable and secure emotions
• Respected, listened to and loved
• Cooking
• Fixing your car
• She likes to read

Healthy relationships

Relationships are not always easy and often couples, familial relationships and friendships can face challenging times. However healthy relationships face these challenges with good communication, empathy, support and kindness. An unhealthy relationship may feel consistently difficult and lonely. If you feel you would like further support with your relationship you can visit any of the following links at the end of this article for more information or guidance.

Good relationships involve talking honestly, listening carefully, asserting your needs and having patience when working out problems. A respectful relationship means encouraging one another, having feelings validated and thoughts appreciated. This all helps to build trust and maintain it. Trust is grown over time and is maintained when each person is honest and reliable. Reliability is part of support and good support means being a shoulder to cry on and one another’s biggest fan.

Most of all, healthy relationships involve making time for one another, laughing together, being consistently supportive and are not perfect. All relationships take time and work to problem solve; a healthy relationship will work as a team to overcome issues. But remember, you cannot make a person change and if you feel your relationship is unhealthy you can take a step back, reevaluate and if it is not possible to communicate openly with your partner, friend or family then you can access support.

10 signs of a healthy relationship

1. Open communication
2. Respect
3. Equal economy
4. Freedom and independence
5. Kindness
6. Trust
7. Consent
8. Calm and considerate conflict resolution
9. Equal amount of power/ equality
10. Empathy and support

10 signs of an unhealthy relationship

1. Negative and hurtful criticism
2. Very little or no trust
3. Lack of communication
4. Dishonesty
5. Coercion
6. Unequal
7. Controlling and or oppressive
8. Unkind
9. Being pressured into intimate acts
10. Feeling more often sad than happy

For more information visit - https://www.thehotline.org/resources/healthy-relationships/

For support visit:

• https://www.relate.org.uk/
• https://www.marriagecare.org.uk/
• https://www.nhs.uk/servicesearch/other-health-services/relationship-counselling