A prevention programme

Love or Lure

Recognise the pattern.·Understand the pull.·Empowered to walk away.

A prevention programme that teaches girls and women to recognise the difference between love and lure.

See the programmeGet in touch
3parts
7stages of grooming
7protective habits
16hours of teaching
Love

is a relationship that helps a person grow and become more herself.

Lure

is a relationship used as a tool. It takes three forms:

Grooming
Building trust and affection on purpose, in order to use a person later for sex, money, images or work.
Manipulation
Steering a person's feelings and decisions through deception and pressure, for one's own gain.
Coercive control
Taking over a person's life piece by piece: who she sees, where she goes, what she spends, what she agrees to.

Love and lure begin in the same way: with attention, affection and promises.
The Love or Lure programme teaches the difference.

The problem

Right now, girls and women are warned mainly about strangers.

Yet the people who groom, manipulate and control them are boyfriends, friends and people they trust. Research shows how widespread this is:

Grooming and exploitation
Most common

The loverboy method, a romantic relationship built in order to exploit, is the most common way young women and girls are recruited for sexual exploitation in the European Union.European Commission, 2025

7,263

online grooming offences against children recorded by UK police in one year, almost double the number when the offence was introduced. 80% of the children targeted were girls.NSPCC, 2025

1 in 8

children worldwide was subjected to online sexual solicitation in a single year: unwanted sexual talk, questions or requests.Childlight, University of Edinburgh, 2024

About half

of identified child trafficking victims in Romania were recruited by a friend or a partner. For girls, the peak age is 15 to 17.Justice and Care, 2025

Control in relationships, and what girls are taught
1 in 6

young women aged 18 to 25 has been subjected to coercive control by a partner or former partner.Women's Aid Ireland, 2020

16%

of young people say it is easy to spot the signs of abuse in someone else's relationship.Women's Aid Ireland, 2021

1 in 3

More than a third of 18 to 25 year olds recall no teaching at school about controlling behaviour.Women's Aid England, 2023

What countries have agreed

Countries have already agreed that this belongs in school. Under the Lanzarote Convention of the Council of Europe, each country commits to making sure that children in primary and secondary school learn about the risks of sexual exploitation and abuse, and about the ways to protect themselves. All 46 member states have ratified it, including the United Kingdom and every country of the European Union. The Istanbul Convention adds teaching on violence against women and on mutual respect at every level of education.Council of Europe: Lanzarote Convention, Article 6 (2007); Istanbul Convention, Article 14 (2011)

And here is the gap between that promise and the classroom. Some schools teach consent, online safety and lessons on relationships. Grooming, manipulation and coercive control are rarely covered. The pattern itself, how a groomer chooses a person, approaches her, wins her trust and takes control, is taught almost nowhere.

Love or Lure fills that gap.

What the programme does

It takes participants through three parts.

PART ONE

Recognise the pattern

They learn the seven stages of grooming and control, from the first friendly message to exploitation. Each stage is shown beside healthy behaviour.

PART TWO

Understand the pull

They learn the psychology that makes lure feel like love and makes leaving so hard.

PART THREE

Empowered to walk away

They practise seven protective habits until they can use them.

16 hours, and why

The programme takes about 16 hours of teaching.

It can be delivered over two or three days, on weekdays or at weekends.

A groomer invests weeks or months in winning one person. One hour of awareness is no match for that.

In 16 hours, participants learn the whole pattern, understand why it works on them, and practise their response until it is ready to use. Each part builds on the one before. This is why the programme is always taught in full.

Who it is for

Each group has its own version, with cases from its own stage of life.

Schools

Girls aged 15 and over.

Universities

Women students.

Women's organisations and community groups

Adult women of any age.

Bring Love or Lure to your school, university or organisation.

Get in touch