CHANGE Men's Programme   Background CHANGE’s central aim has been to provide a criminal-justice based re-education programme for men convicted of offences involving violence or abuse towards their wives or female partners. The programme aimed to complement the work of Women’s Aid and others with the survivors of domestic violence by challenging men to take responsibility for their violence and offering them an opportunity to change their violent and abusive ways. The establishment of the Project represented the outcome of several years’ efforts by a steering group comprising academics, activists and other interested individuals committed to piloting a scheme working with violent men that took its model from best practice available elsewhere. Largely this came about from concern that work with men was already happening in other countries, using a variety of models, some of which gave cause for anxiety to activists and practitioners in the field of domestic violence. Such work was likely to be replicated in Britain, and there was known to be interest from a range of agencies and individuals. In particular there was concern that the work should be placed in a criminal justice context and that it be informed by, and accountable to, women.   Perspective The perspective which CHANGE adopts on male violence is that it is intentional, albeit not always conscious, behaviour that men use to maintain power over and to control women in intimate relationships. It stems from the historic and cultural legacy of patriarchy whereby men are socialised into believing they are superior to and have rights over women.   Institutional responses Institutional responses to men’s violence had, until relatively recently, largely served to bolster the belief that violence to women in the home is somehow different to other forms of violence; that it is a private matter, not as serious, or is justifiable in some way.   Prompted by arduous lobbying and campaigning by women’s groups and their allies, there has been a recognisable shift among agencies of the justice system to improve their practice in relation to men’s violence to women. In fairness, many in the justice system recognised the limitations of their responses but felt that current measures available had little to offer women by way of resolution.   Programme goals The programme that CHANGE was charged to set up aimed to impact on institutional responses and the wider community, as well as on individual men. By offering a programme that focused on the offending behaviour, sentencers had an option that focussed on addressing violence. By working closely with social workers and placing the programme in the context of a probation order this would both signal the seriousness with which such offending was regarded and offer an opportunity to monitor the offender’s behaviour while on probation. Emphasising the criminal nature of domestic violence and placing the responsibility on the man to change that behaviour would also help to demonstrate to the community in general that this type of behaviour is criminal and unacceptable.   Beginnings The Project originally had three members of staff; two Joint Co-ordinators; a man and a woman, and an Administrator. A constitution placing responsibility for the management of the staff with a Management Committee was drawn up and submitted and subsequently accepted by the Inland Revenue granting the organisation charitable status. The Committee was made up of local people from a range of backgrounds who are concerned with the issue of men’s violence. In addition an Advisory Group, comprising representatives of local statutory and voluntary agencies was formed whose task has been to provide advice and information to staff and the Management Committee. In 1997 CHANGE became a charitable company limited by guarantee, the board of which is now the managing body. For the first six months the focus of the work was on liaising with other agencies whose co-operation would be required, and drafting the men’s programme. Firstly this meant holding discussions and drawing up working agreements with those agencies. Unlike the acknowledged ‘best practice’ model in the USA (The Domestic Abuse Intervention Programme of Duluth, Minnesota), CHANGE did not start in the context of a co-ordinated community structure for tackling domestic violence. Indeed one of the Project’s goals was to work towards this with others involved. Instead the Project had backing from Central Region Social Work Department who sponsored and supervised it; support from local and Scottish Women’s Aid and the interest of one or two key individuals within other agencies of the justice system. Much time was spent therefore in discussions with Social Work managers, the Police, Procurators Fiscal and Sheriffs. As the main referral sources for the men’s programme were to be the three Sheriff Courts in Central Region, systems for referral and assessment were agreed and referral frameworks were devised for Courts’ use. Leaflets providing information for sentencers were sent regularly to Sheriff Clerks for distribution to visiting and temporary sheriffs.   Developing the programme In developing the content of the programme, CHANGE benefited from the contacts already made by members of the steering group with model programmes in the USA. The Project was launched by holding a one-day conference with contributions from Donna Garske and Hamish Sinclair, from Marin County Abused Women’s Services, California. This was followed by four days’ intensive staff training from Hamish Sinclair based on the Manalive Men’s Programme. The training gave CHANGE staff a basic grounding in how a men’s programme operates, but the staff were also keen to learn from other examples of men’s programmes.   Subsequently the CHANGE team was sent to visit three model programme centres in the USA. During a packed ten day trip the team visited the Domestic Abuse Intervention Programme, (DAIP) in Duluth, Minnesota; the Domestic Abuse Project, (DAP) in Minneapolis, and EMERGE, in Boston. All these organisations were generous with their time and experience, and freely gave copies of all sorts of materials, many of which CHANGE drew on or adapted in developing this programme. Ellen Pence and Michael Paymar from DAIP were guest speakers at another CHANGE conference later that year, and undertook three days of workshop training for CHANGE staff and others interested in this work.   An extensive trawl of the literature on a range of intervention programmes for offenders, and discussions with those currently doing or planning similar or related work were then undertaken as the programme began to take shape. The development of the programme was also informed by visiting local Women’s Aid refuges and talking with the women there. As the shape of the planned programme was sketched out, feedback was sought from members of CHANGE’s Management Committee and Advisory Group, and from local Social Work Area Teams.   Programme approach and content The content and shape of the men’s programme has constantly been revised over the time it has been used, in the light of developing experience and evaluative feedback from participants, but the goals remain consistent. The approach adopted can broadly be described as cognitive-behavioural in as much as emphasis is placed on starting from men’s own understanding of their behaviour and helping them to look at it from another viewpoint. Emphasis is on challenging attitudes and beliefs - about self, about men and women’s roles - as they relate to actions. The expectations men carry as a consequence of their beliefs about how others, and women in particular, ought to behave; these root expectations are what men need to confront and change if they are going to act differently. To do so, this change needs to be seen to have value; thus men need to weigh the gains and losses, or relative merits of changing or refusing to change. In order to change also, men must see that change is possible, and that it is something over which they have choice. It is an irony that so many men who feel compelled to exert control over those around them feel often so little in control of themselves: instead they often perceive themselves as victims of others’ actions.   Apart from content, there were a number of other considerations to be taken account of. In running a court-mandated programme a percentage of the men referred, despite the fact that they had agreed to participate, would nevertheless be likely to resist the ideas and demands the programme made of them. Each session was organised therefore in such a way as to decrease men's overt resistance, draw them into undertaking the work of the group, and gain their compliance and co-operation.   The most efficient and accountable way to organise this work was in the form of modules. A man had to attend as many sessions as were necessary to complete all the modules in order to fulfil his probation requirement with CHANGE. He had to be present in the group for the didactic presentation of a module, i.e the ‘taught part’. He was required to contribute to any ‘brainstorming’ or other exercise which might follow, and he also had to undertake homework related to the module concerned.   By April 1990 CHANGE was able to start undertaking assessments of men’s suitability for the programme. Courts and Social Workers were informed that the first group programme would commence as soon as a sufficient number of men was ready to commence. The first group began in May 1990. It must be stated that the men CHANGE has worked with during this time have been exclusively working class and white. This was not out of choice, but reflects the profile of those who come into the criminal justice system.   Services to women partners CHANGE was also charged to build into its work systems to ensure the safety of women partners and services for them. The Project has attempted to offer support and to be accountable to women in a number of ways. These have involved working with other agencies, notably Women's Aid and Social Services, to develop materials and working practices. The system evolved over a period of years, and was informed largely by feedback from women to the programme and comments from women taking part in the formal research evaluation.   Evaluation Although the CHANGE men’s programme was devised drawing upon what was known at that time about effectiveness, the research evidence then was skimpy and none related to UK practice. Thus CHANGE was designed to operate as a pilot programme and has been subject to a formal research study. Together with a similar men’s programme piloted in Lothian Region, (DVPP), the impact of the CHANGE men’s programme was compared with other criminal justice sanctions such as fines, probation and prison. The findings of the three year Scottish Office and Home Office sponsored study were published as a research report (Dobash, Dobash, Cavanagh & Lewis (1996) Research Evaluation of Programmes for Violent Men, The Scottish Office Central Research Unit, Edinburgh). Subsequently the research findings informed the book Changing Violent Men, by Dobash, R.E., Dobash, R.P., Cavanagh, K., & Lewis, R., and published in London by Sage in 2000. The researchers analysed the elements and processes associated with change, and there is a notable correspondence between the goals of the programme and that process. Change in the men was backed by evidence provided by women partners on the grounds that theirs’ was more likely to provide a stringent test of any change. The report is lengthy and detailed and cannot be reproduced here, but an important finding for the future of this work is that: ‘a significant proportion of the offenders who participated in the men’s programmes reduced their violence and associated controlling behaviour and their women partners reported significant improvements in the quality of their lives and their relationships with these men.’                                A charitable company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No 183989             Scottish charity No SCO18322          CHANGE Acknowledges funding from the Scottish Executive