New research evaluating a domestic abuse programme

A team at Bournemouth University have won funding to evaluate a holistic domestic abuse programme run by Yellow Door in Southampton, a domestic abuse charity.

The Early Years Domestic Abuse Programme is run over a 10-week period for mothers/caregivers and their children (under 5 years) who have experienced domestic abuse. The interdisciplinary team at BU consists of Principal Academic in Criminology Dr Jane Healy, the project lead, alongside colleagues in social work and psychology. 

Chloe Gilbert, Head of Business Operations and Strategy at Yellow Door said: “The course is run in 2 parts: the parents course covers the impact of domestic and sexual abuse, effective communication skills, working with challenging behaviour, developing protective behaviours and strategies for keeping mothers, children and young people safe.

"We then also run separate Thera-play sessions for the children delivered by a qualified Play Therapist. We are really looking forward to working with Bournemouth University to assess the impact of this important work.”

The other members of the research team have strong ties to this field of research having published widely in the areas of domestic abuse, gender-based violence and social work practice. They include Dr Terri Cole and Dr Orlanda Harvey, who will lead on work with professionals, and Dr Stefan Kleipoedszus and Dr Louise Oliver who will work with the children. Dr Healy will work with the parents/carers, alongside Research Assistant Dr Anna Kopec Massey.

This research builds on previous work undertaken in collaboration with Yellow Door and Harvey, Healy and Cole have also evaluated domestic abuse services through a number of local and international projects (including: OSSPC "The Other Side of the Story: Perpetrators in Change"; Yellow Door and Stop Domestic Abuse) which have included interviews with adult victim-survivors and focus groups with professionals. 

The evaluation will contribute substantially to understanding both the benefits and challenges to delivering an Early Years programme to adults and children. The evaluation will produce an evidence-base in relation to this specific programme, in the form of an open-access and accessible research report, published articles and conference presentations, and position it within wider national, international, practitioner and academic context. It will gather information from service users, including children, parent/carers, professionals and practitioners to provide an independent but holistic evaluation of the programme.

Yellow Door extend their thanks to Rayne Foundation and Charles Hayward Foundation for their support. 

If you would like to find out more about the project, which is running until 2027, please contact: Victoria at Yellow Door, at [email protected]