CHANGE 1994-1995 Annual Report
Convenor’s Report
On behalf of the management committee I am pleased to introduce
the fifth Annual Report of the CHANGE Project.
The Project continues to offer the men’s programme as a service
to the three sheriff courts within Central Region. In 1994 the
management committee recruited two sessional workers to help run
the group sessions. Once these workers had completed a period of
intense training the co-ordinators were able to take time out
from the groupwork, which they had undertaken constantly for
five years, to concentrate on developmental work on the
long-term future of the Project.
The co-ordinators have sustained and consolidated their skills
in consultancy and training, areas vital to the survival of the
Project when current funding ceases. The evaluation feedback
from course participants verifies their continued development in
this field. Other interesting developments have been the
provision by the Project of a modular course for inmates of a
local prison and the setting up, in partnership with other
agencies, of a support group for women partners of men on the
programme.
In the last year two high profile media campaigns have sought to
change the public’s perception with regard to domestic violence
nationally. The Scottish Office funded a television and poster
campaign focusing on domestic violence, and in
Central Region the Zero Tolerance Campaign included domestic
violence along with other forms of male abuse. CHANGE, along
with other agencies, was consulted with regard to both these
campaigns.
In November 1994, Dale Hurst, a community psychologist from
Melbourne, Australia, gave a talk in which he discussed the
results of media campaigns in his locality. The research he
quoted evidenced that real changes in people’s perception of
domestic violence can be achieved when campaigns are carefully
targeted.
Staff and members of the management committee have continued to
plan for the cessation of Urban Programme Funding in September
1996. This work is difficult and complex as, like many others,
we find ourselves operating in a context of uncertainty due to
local government reorganisation. Despite this we retain a strong
commitment to a continuation of the work which we view as
valuable and necessary.
Finally, as I come to the end of my term as convenor, I would
like to thank David, Dorothy, Monica and the members of the
management committee for their support. I wish my successor well
and hope they find the role of convenor as challenging and
rewarding as I have.
James McCormick
Convenor
The CHANGE Project
The CHANGE Project was established in September 1989 following
the committed work of a number of individuals from Women’s Aid
and the legal, academic and social work professions, whose
efforts had been successful in securing Urban Aid Funding
through the sponsorship of Central Regional Council Social Work
Services.
The main aims of the Project are to deliver a criminal justice
based re-education programme for men who have been violent to
their wives or female partners, to encourage collaborative
interagency practice over domestic violence, to offer training
and consultancy to other professionals working in this area and,
through publications, the holding of conferences and
contributions to other conferences, to raise general awareness
of the issue of domestic violence.
Staffing and Management
CHANGE is staffed by two co-ordinators and an administrator.
From September 1994 two sessional group workers have been
employed. Staff are responsible to a management committee
comprising individuals who are concerned to achieve the goals of
CHANGE. A Constitution lays down the objectives and functions of
the organisation. Management committee meetings are held on a
six-weekly cycle. In addition, an Advisory Group comprising
representatives of local statutory and voluntary agencies meets
occasionally to provide advice and information to the management
committee.
The CHANGE Perspective on Men’s Violence
CHANGE’s position is that men's violence towards their female
partners stems from a fundamental inequality in the male/female
relationship which is rooted in patriarchy, and engenders men's
need to secure and maintain power and control in relationships.
From this perspective men's abuse of, and violence towards,
women is seen as learned and intentional behaviour rather than
the consequence of individual pathology, stress, alcohol abuse
or the fact that he lives in a 'dysfunctional relationship'.
Traditionally, men have been assumed to have the right to
exercise power and control over women and children, both in
general terms as well as in personal relationships. Ultimately,
the wider responsibility for solving the problems of family
violence relies upon a change in social attitudes and in the way
in which our institutions respond to these manifestations of
male power. Within this context, programmes for men who abuse
women are viewed only as one aspect of a wider responsibility
for society to change.
Referrals to the Men's Programme
During the last year CHANGE has come to be used increasingly
regularly by local courts, being requested to undertake
assessments at one stage at the rate of one man per week. CHANGE
staff felt gratified that such a referral rate demonstrated that
the confidence of the courts has apparently continued to grow.
By late spring 1994 three separate groups were being run, one in
the afternoon to accommodate those men working shifts, and two
in the evenings. However, faced with this continuing demand for
assessment and the associated work of the programme the
co-ordinators, in discussion with CHANGE management committee
and Central Region, felt it necessary to request a temporary
freeze on court referrals during the summer months, generally a
time of lower rates of referral. Courts were notified fully of
CHANGE's reasons for doing so and kept regularly informed as to
when the programme could resume.
By September, two of the three groups which had been run over
the summer were coming to a close and two sessional workers had
been brought on board to assist in the direct running of the
men's groups. CHANGE informed courts that they were able to
resume conducting assessments later that month and indeed these
quickly returned to the steady rate experienced earlier. The
presence of sessional staff with whom CHANGE co-ordinators
co-worked throughout the autumn allowed the co-ordinators the
space necessary to stand slightly back from the direct work
being undertaken in order to refine and improve various
techniques and approaches used to engage with the men as well as
commencing the long discussed task of undertaking the
development of the manual which continues apace.
CHANGE has sought since the beginning of the Project to be
accountable to the various other agencies with whom we are
involved in improving practice in relation to domestic violence.
One way we have done so and which has possibly helped us gain
the active co-operation of sentencers has been by communicating
clearly with them not only through providing explicit
assessments, but also by offering feedback directly to
sentencers on each man who has completed the CHANGE Programme.
Independent Research Report
In addition to our own monitoring of men's progress and reports
to social workers and sentencers CHANGE has been subject to
independent research which has been jointly funded by the Home
and Scottish Offices. We look forward to that report being
published sometime in the autumn of 1995.
Feedback from programme participants
In September 1994, two men who had recently completed the
programme agreed to be interviewed on videotape about their
experience of it and the impact it had had on them. They both
gave their permission for the video to be used for CHANGE's
conference and training work. Some of the sound-track is
transcribed below. All names have been changed to protect
confidentiality.
Q. What were your early impressions of the programme?
John:
At the beginning I thought this was the easy way out, you know.
I thought they can't really get on to me; I've only hit my wife
once. That was the only time I was violent at all to her. But
after the first few weeks and that; and after the definition of
the word violence - you cut it down to cover not just physical,
but mental and everything - I realised it did apply to me. It
was just the first few weeks that I felt the programme didn't
apply to me.
Q. The time we introduced the Power and Control wheel, that
made a big impression on you . What was it?
John:
It had all the definitions on it, and the definitions were
defined, and that made it even more interesting to me. Like
'play mind games', 'emotional blackmail', all that. And as I
went round it I thought, I've done every single one of them - in
the past, like, you know - I've used all of that against my
partner. At the time of doing them, I didn't actually realise I
was doing them. Like - I'm using 'mind games' again
because that's one form of abuse I used - and I thought, aha,
I've done that. But at the time, to me it was a joke. But after
realising it is abuse, I thought, you know, I wasn't such a nice
character. I mean, I was cruel to Mary.
Q. What stuck out for you Alex?
Alex:
Timeouts.
Q. Tell us about it.
Alex:
Before I was even on the CHANGE programme it felt, well, if we
had an argument or a blow-out, then it could get nasty. Then I
came onto the CHANGE programme and found out about the
Time-outs, at first it kind of sounded like an excuse when
anything got difficult. I had to try to help my partner
understand it wasn't just an excuse for me to walk out and get
away from the situation; it was taking time for to let the
situation calm and to let your mind clear about exactly what was
going on. If you're in the middle of a heated argument, then
things get said and you forget about what you started arguing
about in the first place. But taking a Time-out gave you time to
think about how the argument started, and look at where it's
went to; from nothing into really something. If you took about
an hour to go out, and then go back to the house. Well, it
depended on how your partner was feeling. If you'd cooled down
and she was wanting to maybe talk, then you could listen and
hear what she had to say. Well, it worked for me.
Q. What other things stuck in your mind from the programme?
Alex:
Communication. Communication has improved one hundred per cent.
Before the CHANGE Programme, any problems I just wouldn't talk
about them. Through the homework I learned to be able to let my
problems out, and not bottle them up, and thereby put pressure
on myself. It allowed me to control myself - talking about
problems that were arising not just from me, but from Susan, and
in-laws, and work and money. I could talk and Susan could talk
to me, and I could listen. It really gave us an area in our life
that we hadna really had. We'd talked before, but no like we
talk now. If there's something bothering Susan about me she
comes towards me and tells me and I try to do something about
it. If there's something bothering me about Susan then I'll tell
her. And that's how we deal with all our problems now.
John:
What stuck in my mind was 'Self-talk'. What I said to myself
when a situation arises. And also the 'Early Warning Signals',
recognising them and being able to put the lid on them before it
gets to the stage where I do blow.
Q. Did the programme affect other areas of your life?
John:
As the programme went on I realised that what I was learning
didn't just apply to me and my wife. It was the same in my whole
life - with family, friends and strangers. I was like that all
the time. What I was learning was useful not just for the way I
had treated Mary but I was using it with ordinary people - in
the street and the rest of it.
Alex:
A lot of the things that Susan did or said that really got me
going; I don't even notice them now. They don't upset me now.
Q. Why did they before?
Alex:
Cos I was pretty crabbit; bad tempered, a grumpy old sod. I was
bad tempered. The slightest thing set me off. There were things
I felt that Susan should have been doing that I was annoyed that
she wasn't doing them. But at the same time there was a lot of
things about the house that I wasn't doing. Before, I sort of
divided it up. I work and Susan looks after the child, the house
and everything. But now I take more responsibility. As far as my
daughter's concerned, I spend a lot more time with her than I
used to. Like housework, I haven't really taken all the
housework away from Susan, but I've started doing,.. well, maybe
not my fair share, not quite, but more that I did.
Q. Does that bother you?
Alex:
It bothers me less. Before I'd come home from work and think
'she hasn't tidied up, the bairn's toys are lying all around.'
But now I'll either come in and tidy them up myself, or leave
them.
See, before, I'd come in and slump down in front of the telly
and sit and watch the telly, not taking an interest in anyone
that was around me. When I come in now we talk. We talk all
about my work, what happened today, or about Susan's day, or the
wee one; whether she's been bad or good. So there's these things
I'm more interested in now than the floor being tidy. That
doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Partner Work
This year has seen more developments in our efforts to provide
information for the partners of men on the programme and to
accommodate their needs. Working jointly with Social Work
Services and with Clackmannan and Falkirk & District Women's
Aid, the four information leaflets under draft at the time of
writing last year's report are now finalised and in use. These
contain brief summaries of the work the men are doing as they
progress through the curriculum, and the leaflets are sent out
at spaced intervals of four to six weeks. Together they form a
picture of the whole programme content.
In addition we successfully set up a special meeting to which
partners of men just starting the programme were invited to meet
each other and a representative from each of the three
organisations involved in this work. This came about due to some
women in the past saying that they wished there had been such an
opportunity for them. All the women welcomed this initiative and
attended this meeting. Attempts to follow this with subsequent
meetings for this group proved unpopular, largely for practical
reasons to do with women's commitments. In future all partners
of men beginning the programme will be offered the opportunity
of such a meeting.
Prison-based work
During the early part of this year CHANGE, working in
co-operation with a small group of prison officers, set up and
ran a seven week course for a number of prisoners in Glenochil
Prison. Entitled 'Resettlement and Relationships', this pilot
programme worked with a group of eight prisoners. The group
looked at the various family and partnership problems which can
arise as a result of imprisonment and also concentrated on how
men themselves make many of these worse due to the various
pressures which they put on their partners. Focusing on themes
such as 'gender training - pressures on men, pressures on
women’; ‘men and emotions - rules and anger’; and ‘power and
control in personal relationships' was sometimes uncomfortable
for the men in the group. It required them to face up to some
aspects of their behaviour which in prison often go
unacknowledged, such as the use of telephones not simply to
maintain contact, but to bully or control partners.
Despite this a number of the participants commented that they
had found the group helpful in getting them to re-examine some
of their fundamental expectations about being a man and how men
should treat women.
Tommy:
“To communicate with your partner, your partner has got to have
an opinion. In my house my wife never had an opinion."
Q. Why was that?
Tommy:
“Because I never allowed her to have an opinion. I didn't think
that any of her ideas could be sensible. I can think of many
occasions where she's tried to put an opinion over and my
defences went straight up."
Following the pilot, a report has been prepared providing direct
feedback to Glenochil. This has been a valuable experience for
CHANGE, enabling the further development of training for prison
officers interested in this field and in other forms of
groupwork, as well as allowing us to adapt and introduce similar
'resettlement and relationship' courses in various other prisons
and young offenders institutions both in Scotland and beyond.
Dale Hurst Seminar
One visitor to the Project over the last year was Dale Hurst, a
community psychologist from Melbourne, Australia, who was then
travelling extensively on a Churchill Fellowship studying and
comparing programmes for men throughout the USA, Canada and
Europe. During his whistle-stop tour, Dale gave CHANGE staff a
fascinating talk on his direct work with men in Melbourne, who
were referred to him both through courts and health centres. He
also advised us of a large upturn in men's apparent concern
about their use of violence which followed a public awareness
campaign entitled, ‘Violence is Ugly’. As Central Region had at
that time recently commenced their Zero Tolerance campaign and
the Scottish Office was screening a television advert
proclaiming the criminality of men's violence, CHANGE invited
Dale Hurst to undertake a seminar to a formally invited audience
here in Stirling.
The basis of Dale's presentation was that while men need to be
confronted with violence through initiatives such as criminal
justice-based men's programmes, there also needs to be provision
for the large majority of men whose violence never reaches the
courts. The well-known concerns about 'voluntary' programmes,
namely that they have a high attrition rate and that they tend
to deal with men only when they are in crisis and then lose them
thereafter, were not borne out in Melbourne said Dale. “For
example, our research indicates drop out rates of some 27%
compared to rates of 50-70% in many mandatory groups overseas.
We are also identifying that these men who drop out are higher
drinkers, and have lower education than those who complete
programs. We now know that despite many men being initially
mainly interested in just ‘getting her back’, with better
assessment and engagement techniques, many of these men can be
effectively engaged in working on their issues. This is a
relatively new area of development in this work.”
The reasons for this appear to be threefold. Within the state of
Victoria there was a broad based government campaign which
involved many elements of the media and which targeted men to
think more deeply and to take responsibility for their
behaviour; women not to put up with it; and the community not to
turn a blind eye.
There were also on-going attempts to ensure the criminal justice
system was more responsive to the safety needs of women and that
services were more co-ordinated. There had also evolved a
statewide network of services for men who were concerned about
their behaviour and were willing to seek help to change. This
network was ideally positioned to be able to respond to the
increased demand by men seeking services as a result of the
‘Violence is Ugly’ campaign. The general effect of the above was
that men sought out services in large numbers (e.g. 500 men
responded to some newspaper advertisements and wanted to change
their violent behaviour).
Dale's seminar and presentation of the 'Violence is Ugly’ videos
was well attended. Fifty guests representing various voluntary
and professional backgrounds, including academic staff from
Stirling University, the judiciary, police, social work,
psychiatry, the Scottish Office, as well as Zero Tolerance and
local authority officers and politicians, took part in the
lively debate which followed afterwards.
Dale's seminar topic and the findings he referred to will be the
subject of a full report on which he is presently engaged.
CHANGE maintains a regular correspondence with him meantime.
Teaching, Training and Conferences
We continue to have teaching commitments for social work and
psychology students. This year we added training of prison
officers to our experience, contributing to the first of what we
expect to be a series of training courses at the Scottish Prison
College at Polmont.
Despite a decision not to actively seek outside training
engagements this year, two were undertaken. Firstly we were
pleased to be invited back to South Yorkshire Probation Service
to undertake a further two-day training for Probation staff on
working with domestic violence offenders. This enabled us to
refine the training programme in a way which took account of the
evaluation comments received from the year before. Some comments
from this year's evaluation are printed here.
A
1. What did you hope to gain from the training days?
That the work can be positive and the ideas given can be taken
forward and used within our own workplace.
2. Were the days successful in these terms?
Yes. All of the work I feel I wanted was covered.
3. How do you plan to make use of the training in your work?
On a one-to-one basis, as domestic violence appears to be on the
increase in terms of PSRs (Pre Sentence Reports).
B
1. What did you hope to gain from the training days?
Information about CHANGE, your perspective, approach and
history. Practical information about how to go about work with
men.
2. Were the days successful in these terms?
Yes. You've shared lots of experience which has been very
useful. You gave a lot of ideas, background and methods of
working with men, with lots of examples of how to do this, what
the dynamics will be and potential problems. I felt your
training is 'hot off the press', i.e. very close to the work
you're doing and fed by
it. Very well informed and valuable for us.
3. How do you plan to make use of the training in your work?
It has deepened my understanding. It's another building block to
setting up work here. You've been very accessible and respecting
trainers.
C
1. What did you hope to gain from the training days?
Increased knowledge about working with perpetrators of domestic
violence, particularly group work which I know there is a need
for. Practical ideas and tools for one-to-one work.
2. Were the days successful in these terms?
Yes. I came in cynical about the training due to past experience
but am leaving with increased motivation, some ideas, a lot of
questions and some well formed plans for the next steps.
Although a fast and furious two days, I found the input and
exercises clear and useful.
3. How do you plan to make use of the training in your work?
I feel I have increased my skills for one-to-one work and formed
plans for developing group work.
The other engagement was an invitation to the Channel Island of
Jersey. The visit combined a day's training for the island's
probation team on working with domestic violence offenders and
an invitation to address a planning conference called to develop
and co-ordinate a range of responses to the issue of domestic
violence. The two-day conference was the culmination of a year's
planning by the Jersey Network to Prevent Abuse and Violence in
the Home. This is an inter-agency forum with representation
from, among others, the police, the justice system, probation,
the health service, the education service, the Children's
Office, the women's refuge and the Samaritans. CHANGE was one of
three mainland organisations invited to share their experience
with around one hundred islanders, the others being the
co-ordinator of a West Yorkshire women's refuge, and The Geese
Theatre Company.
