Empower Kids - Barnardo's inclusion of children who experienced childhood domestic violence and abuse

• We decided to engage children and young people in an environment that promoted physical and emotional safety at all times.
• We also felt due to the trauma that the children and young people may have experienced, a familiar environment was key in creating this safe space, typically this was in the service they engaged with regularly or in their family home.

• Each support service engaged in the Empower Kids project initially identified children and young people who may be suitable for this work.
• We then took time to assess their suitability so that their participation did not compromise their physical or emotional safety in any way.

• We engaged support services who work directly with children who have lived with domestic violence and abuse in the participation project.
• Each individual support service identified suitable children and young people for assessment and together we engaged over 30 children and young people who have lived with domestic violence and abuse in this consultation process.

• We involved the children and young people in decision-making once they were engaged in the project after the initial consultation phase.
• This began during the creative output process, where we gathered their views and ideas to create the brief for the animation and poster.
• More recently they have been involved in deciding the direction of the work for 2022.

• We felt the best way to engage this cohort of seldom-heard children and young people, was to facilitate their access either in their local area service or in the comfort of their own homes.
• They already had a relationship with their keyworker, so this transition from support work to participation work was seamless for many.
• We gave extra time and attention to be as inclusive of the individual needs of the children and young people as possible.

• We identified with the children and young people that there is a lack of understanding of the lived experience and needs of childhood domestic violence and abuse nationwide.
• Each individual support worker used materials such as age-appropriate information videos and handouts with the children and young people to fully inform them of the topic on which we wanted their views and the purpose of the work itself.

• We ensured each child/young person was aware of the purpose of the work, that it was their right to be heard and listen to, and that we were all working collaboratively to raise the visibility of childhood domestic violence at a local, regional and national level.
• We felt it was important that we fostered a culture of respect for the true, honest, and accurate views of the children/young people who engaged in the process throughout this work.
• We were transparent about what was happening at all times.

• From the onset, we wanted all the children and young people involved to feel included, and have their experiences validated and their expertise recognised.
• We let them know that everything they said would be taken seriously, and that it would contribute to creating a better understanding among service providers and policymakers about children and young people’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse.

• We designed open-ended questions and vignettes for the children and young people to feedback on a certain topic.
• Depending on the individual child/young person, each individual support worker selected from the following list of engagement tools to allow them to express their opinions and give feedback for those open-ended questions:
  • Confidence building exercises: Know who you are, me me me, and me tree.
  • Creating space Ice breakers: listen and learn, clapping game, draw what your partner tells you
  • Facilitating voice: Placemat exercise, body art, lifelines, top ten, identity/wish boxes
  • Closure: mindfulness and regulation exercises, affirmation cards

• Throughout both years, we kept the questions and topics very open and broad so that children and young people could choose what to feedback in to the process.
• In 2020: We asked children/YP what domestic violence and abuse look like to them.
• In 2021: The theme for the engagement process, was “What matters for children and young people who live with Domestic Violence and Abuse” – as a result of keeping it broad, common themes naturally emerged throughout all the feedback and the children and young people involved had ownership and control over what they wanted to contribute.

• The children and young people provided us with a narrative about their lived experiences of domestic violence and abuse. They gave us insight into the trauma of domestic violence and abuse, the impact on their day-to-day lives and their sense of agency as a whole.
• The children/young people identified the important role of their non-offending parent (mother in this case), their teachers/ schools, gardai and how they viewed their relationship with their parent who chooses to abuse.  Having them held accountable was important to them and this can take many forms.
• The importance of being involved in decisions that affect their lives was another prominent theme, and they provided valuable guidance to professionals to respond to children/young people living with domestic violence and abuse.

• The children involved helped us develop a more in-depth understanding of their lived experiences. And we have created a children’s definition of childhood domestic violence and abuse.
• We also created multimedia outputs with the children and young people to capture their views and present them to the public:
  • An animation called The Impact of Domestic Violence and Abuse on Children
  • An animation called Hear Me, See Me, Keep Me Safe
  • Infographic called Our Rights – Your Responsibilities
• Link to our multimedia outputs

• We regularly checked in (and continue to check in) with the children and young people involved on how their views were taken and if it was a true and accurate reflection of what they had said.
• Before any product is launched or goes public, all the children and young people involved have a last look over the final version, to ensure that it is reflective of their lived experience of domestic violence and abuse.

• During this work, each local area organisation in Empower Kids project involved their own local area decision-makers in raising awareness of the lived experience of children and young people who have lived with domestic violence and abuse.
• At a national level, we engaged decision-makers through our childhood domestic violence and abuse national advisory group and the childhood domestic violence and abuse community of practice.
• We also engaged with national services that the children and young people deemed important in their consultation, such as schools via the NCCA (National Council for curriculum and assessment), TUSLA (Child and family agency), ICGP (Irish college of general practitioners), Gardai (through the special protective units) and the Department of Justice (through the consultation for the 3^rd National Strategy for Domestic Sexual and Gender-Based Violence).

• We grew this project from discussions with and suggestions from the interagency collaborative networks that we are involved in at a local, regional, and national level.
• These are the Childhood Domestic Violence and Abuse National Advisory Committee and the Childhood Domestic Violence and Abuse Community of Practice.

• The children’s views have been central to the work to date. We strived at all times to keep them unfiltered.
• The views of the children and young people have continuously shaped the themes emerging, the work plan for Barnardos CDVA project, the outputs for the Empower Kids project, and the course or direction of the work of the project going forward.
• The children have received an email from the Minister for Justice to congratulate them on the powerful animations they have produced to date.
• We keep the children and young people updated on the impact of their work, through regular update videos.

• We are in the early stages of this work. To date, we facilitate the children’s and young people’s views through 1:1 engagement sessions with their key workers. This is then channelled through the Barnardos Childhood Domestic Violence and Abuse Project to reach decision-makers.
• We have begun discussions with the children and young people about setting up a child and youth advisory panel for childhood domestic violence and abuse to create a more direct link between the children and young people themselves and decision-makers.

We created regular update videos from the National Coordinator of the CDVA project which were shared by the individual support services with the children and young people.

• The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) commissioned a webinar centred on the voice of and recommendations from children and young people who have lived with Domestic violence and abuse.
• This is available to all teachers for both the primary and secondary curricula.
• The Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) is hosting the resources made by children and young people alongside their domestic violence guidelines for GPs.
• The 3^rd National Strategy for DSGBV (domestic sexual and gender-based violence) has just been released, and already we can see the views of the children and young people reflected in the strategy.  For example, strengthening the voices of the child in court proceedings.

• Over time, we are aware that some children and young people may for their own reasons, disengage from the work.
• However, this is not reflective of their commitment, more to do with their current circumstances. So, we do keep those who are engaged up to date as much as possible and they are aware of all developments.
• We try to have a continuing working relationship with the children and young people, and they are engaged in projects during the year.

• We keep the children and young people up to date on how their views were taken, and where their information has reached throughout the process.
• We do this through their individual engagement sessions, and we create updated videos to ensure the children and young people are clear on the impact of their views on decisions taken.

• They participated in 1:1 engagement sessions with their individual keyworkers giving us feedback on the process.
• We have created a children’s voices video with their feedback. 

• “It felt better doing this, that I felt heard, and that I can make a difference – even if I was little.”
• “I know I’m not in that place anymore, and the effect of it, this is a good way to get it out.”
• “You know no different, you think it’s normal, I like helping people – I know I am doing something good.”
• “It is good that they are listening to our voice.”
• “I wanted to do this and I know it might have be difficult, and hard, but if it helps someone else, then it’s worth it, If it can stop a person like me hurting like I did.”
• “I’m so proud of it, and my shield, all I wanted to do is to make others happy and safe.”
• “It’s good to have a voice in something, we don’t have a voice in much things.”
• “I found it good because I can help other children.”
• “Every age child has different experiences – It’s never too late to share our experiences.”
• “There was a lot in the animation but that it was good to see it there especially around school.”