Category Archives: projects

by | March 27, 2013 · 9:08 am

PACT: the Leeds response to adolescent to parent violence

It’s always exciting to hear how different projects are going. Here Jenny Bright, of the Leeds Youth Offending Service, brings us up to date on her work raising awareness about adolescent to parent violence, and devising a programme for families.

Following an inspirational awareness raising day facilitated by Lynette Robinson and Sally Fawcett (who was at that time working with Lynette at Alternative Restoratives) in September 2011, I have been determined to raise awareness of the issue of child to parent abuse across agencies in Leeds and to develop a specific response, based on promising practice from the UK and further afield. Once your awareness has been raised, doing nothing is not an option! Continue reading →

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by | February 13, 2013 · 9:39 am

New Project for Abused Parents in Victoria.

There are exciting developments afoot in Australia, where the Victoria State government has agreed funding for  a three year pilot of a programme for parents and young people, based on the Seattle Step-Up model. Jo Howard, of Peninsula Health, has been involved in the campaign for the last five years and views it as a huge achievement at a time of government cutbacks. Work is underway to set up staff and systems, and Jo reports that they are already inundated with parents. There is hope that, if successful, the model will be rolled out across the state and country as a whole. Continue reading →

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by | October 19, 2012 · 10:36 am

Creating Change in Parent Abuse

People often ask me about what happens in parallel work with parents and young people – how do you get young people engaged and addressing their abusive behaviour. Adam Joolia, from AudioActive, has very generously shared the work they do with Break4Change in Brighton.

One of the things that makes Break4Change unique is its use of the creative process as a way of reflecting on and embedding the work done in the therapeutic and theory based aspect of the programme. This is where AudioActive, a pioneering youth music and arts charity come in. Continue reading →

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by | October 15, 2012 · 7:17 pm

The Adolescent to Parent Violence Practitioner Forum – doing it different in Leeds

Jenny Bright, of Leeds YOS, has sent me the following report of a highly successful forum meeting in Leeds last week.

The second APV practitioner forum was held in Leeds on the 11th October 2012.The forum originated in Wakefield, initiated and led by Sally Fawcett.  Sally developed, coordinated and facilitates the “Do it Different” Teen to Parent Abuse group work programme. In the absence of national direction on the issue of APV, Sally was keen to initiate a “bottom up” approach where practitioners get together to share knowledge and practice. There was an overwhelming consensus from the forum that it should be held regularly and it was agreed that areas would take it in turns to host. Continue reading →

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by | September 20, 2012 · 8:24 am

News of Break4Change

The Brighton and Hove Argus recently published an article about the Break4Change project as part of a domestic violence feature.

Break4Change, addressing parent abuse, has now run 6 successful courses, with the 7th due to start in October in Brighton.  The model, which includes work with parents and young people separately, and places high value on restorative features, is the subject of an ongoing evaluation by researchers at Brighton University, and interest has been sparked around the world, in countries as diverse as Sweden and Bulgaria, Spain and Ireland. Continue reading →

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by | September 13, 2012 · 4:04 pm

House of Commons Launch of Parent Abuse Report

The Adfam / AVA report into how parents deal with children who use substances and perpetrate abuse, “Between a rock and a hard place”, launched yesterday at the House of Commons, catalogues the shocking experiences of parents and their attempts to access support. Continue reading →

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by | August 8, 2012 · 9:45 am

No one could accuse the PAARS team of a lack of commitment!

I met with the practitioners from PAARS this week to find out more about what they are doing, and to make their project more widely known.

PAARS, which stands for Parent Abuse and Reconciliation Service, is a small, locally based parent abuse project which got off the ground at the beginning of the year with a Lottery grant and three members working evenings and weekends after finishing their day jobs. Joe Lettieri, Ayse Adil and Karen Hunter work as learning mentors and parent support advisors in a secondary school in the London Borough of Enfield. With many years of service between them, they were very familiar with the story of parents struggling with the twin demons of domestic violence and abusive teenagers, young people acting out their anger and pain in risk taking and violent behaviour, but with no available support services on which to call. Even within school, the team was unable to offer a joined up response, and so they formed PAARS to fill the gap. Continue reading →

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by | July 11, 2012 · 7:11 pm

Supporting families of substance using, abusive young people

While it has long been known that substance abuse by young people was in some cases associated with parent abuse, there has been very little written about the connection. (eg Gallagher’s work)

A 2010 research report, entitled “Supporting families affected by substance use and domestic violence”, which has just been brought to my attention, goes some way to opening such a discussion. The report, by Dr. Sarah Galvani, sought to build the research base with two groups of family members whose needs have not been adequately recognised up to now: young people and Family Member Support Providers, (individuals personally affected and seeking to support others by semi-formal means). Initially it had been anticipated that these adults would be concerned with domestic violence between adult members of a household, but they were surprised to discover that they were in fact working with parents and grandparents affected by abuse from their children and grandchildren. Continue reading →

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by | July 5, 2012 · 9:45 am

Respect 6th National Practitioners Seminar

I have come to anticipate a stimulating and informative experience from Respect’s Practitioner Seminars. Yesterday’s, in the London Borough of Haringey, was the 6th national conference, the first to be held in partnership with a local authority, and it certainly lived up to all expectations. Continue reading →

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by | June 22, 2012 · 11:01 am

Parenting NI statistics show increase in calls for help

At the beginning of June, Parenting NI released figures showing a dramatic increase of 27% in the calls received by their helpline relating to teenage violence against parents. The figure was lower in the Northern Health Trust, with 17%, while the Western Health Trust showed a 30% increase. The statistics compare figures for 2010/2011 with the latest figures for calls from 2011/2012.

Charlene Brooks, Director for Parents Helpline, a project within Parenting NI reported: “The dramatic rise in parents calling the helpline because their teenage children are aggressive or violent towards them, is a worrying trend. Parents call the Parents Helpline for a variety of reasons – they are often worried about their child’s behaviour or family tensions, but recognise the importance of taking steps to get help for the situation. Through our Parenting Education Programmes we have also experienced an increase in parents telling us about ‘behavioural issues’ they are experiencing at home and many will eventually disclose that their teenage child is violent towards them. Understandably many parents are ashamed to admit that their child is aggressive or violent towards them and parents often don’t know where to turn for support.” Continue reading →

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