Domestic abuse can both directly and indirectly disrupt the relationship between a parent and their child (Humphreys et al, 20061; Buchanan, 20182). Abuse can happen in any relationship, and both males and females can be abused or be abusers.
It’s important to recognise that children are never just witnesses to domestic abuse but they also experience it. For the last ten years, the NSPCC has been running a service called
Domestic Abuse, Recovering Together (DART™) which is a ten-week group work programme to help children and families overcome the adverse effects of domestic abuse.
To mark DART’s ten-year anniversary, we invited some of the team who were involved in delivering the service, including one of our scale-up partners,
My Sister’s House Women’s Centre, to talk about the impact it’s had on children and families they’ve worked with.
You’ll hear about:
- how DART differs from other domestic abuse services and how it has evolved over the past decade
- what it’s like to be at the frontline working with children and families who have experienced abuse
- how we’ve widened our reach to support more mothers and children by partnering with other organisations and what this has achieved
- the impact of current circumstances such as the pandemic and lockdown on domestic abuse.
