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This project will explore ways to blend art, evidence and lived experience to enable friends, family and community members to respond to victim-survivors of domestic abuse.
This project runs from November 2023 to October 2024 and is funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) 2023-2028.
Background
Individuals who experience domestic abuse commonly tell someone within their familial or social networks before reaching out to formal services. Supportive reactions from friends and family, whether providing a listening ear or a place to stay, are associated with improvements in the wellbeing of victims and enable them to seek further help.
Yet, evidence highlights several barriers to providing informal support. Friends and family don’t always recognise the signs of abuse, don’t know how to help, or fear repercussions of doing so.
Our ESRC-funded systematic review identified that educational activities can help to address some of these barriers and equip informal supporters with the necessary resources to respond in positive and helpful ways.
Methodology
This knowledge exchange project is based on an arts-based collaboration between researchers, artists and individuals with lived experience of abuse.
Visual arts, such as drawing and tracing, are used to identify and explore the views and experiences of informal support. These experiences, alongside lessons from the wider evidence base, are used to generate actionable messages for the public.
Such messages are embedded in a range of visual artefacts, including art installation and zine, and delivered through a series of interactive, public engagement events.
Aims
Building on our previous finding, the project aims to blend art, evidence from research and expertise from experience to develop actionable messages for the public at large.
In doing so, this project seeks to empower and equip friends, family, neighbours, and community members with the knowledge, understanding and skills to respond to someone experiencing an abusive or harmful relationship.
Team
Project lead
- Dr Karen Schucan Bird, UCL Social Research Institute
Members
Additional information
Related publications
- Enabling Workplace and Community Responses to Domestic Abuse: A Mixed Method Systematic Review of Training for Informal Supporters, Health & Social Care in the Community (2024)
- How to support someone who is experiencing domestic abuse, The Conversation (September 2023)
- Training informal Supporters to Improve Responses to Victim-Survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse: A Systematic Review, Trauma, Violence & Abuse (2023)
- Protocol: Informal social support interventions for improving outcomes for victim-survivors of domestic violence and abuse: An evidence and gap map, Campbell Systematic Reviews (2022)
Previous events