This project aims to create a new learning resource for secondary school children, including video and teacher toolkit, which will help to change the harmful narratives around domestic abuse with benefits for young people, teachers, victims and perpetrators in Leeds.
Leeds City Council (LCC) has acknowledged the importance of tackling domestic violence in their LCC strategy for 2023–2028, specifically focusing on developing ongoing support for children. However, LCC has also recognised a gap in its domestic violence learning resources for secondary school children on its education platform MindMate Lessons. Specifically, there is no dedicated material or modules on domestic violence or the harmful myths, stereotypes and biases that persist about it.
This project will establish a ‘Changing the Narrative’ working group, consisting of local and regional government, police, domestic violence service providers and teachers to co-design a bespoke learning resource that will address this gap in domestic abuse education. It will be based on findings from previous research conducted with domestic violence service providers, which identified a range of problematic narratives that still persist about domestic violence and need to be changed. The resource, which will be aimed at Key Stages 3–5, will be hosted on MindMate and available for all secondary school teachers to teach in Leeds.
This project is funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account 2024–2025.