Changing Relations

Changing Relations We are an arts education and training company that provokes thinking around gender equality, gender

here -I've been wanting to write about : the sickening news of gang r**e on campus. The even more sickening news that ...
05/10/2026

here -

I've been wanting to write about : the sickening news of gang r**e on campus. The even more sickening news that 50+ young men in a group chat neither challenged the offer to join in the r**e of a young woman too incapacitated to consent nor called the police to report this harmful, unlawful activity.

Then today, reports of the "horrifying" scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in British schools:

⚖️ ~5 sexual crimes against children aged 12 & younger were recorded by police every day in primary & secondary schools in England and Wales between 2021-25.

⚖️ 1 allegation of r**e at a school is received by police every day.

⚖️ More than 1/3 of these r**e victims were under 13.

⚖️ 2/3 were female.

[https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/oct/04/child-on-child-sexual-abuse-schools-england-and-wales]

What does this tell us?

We MUST address harmful sexual attitudes & behaviours as early as Primary.

Not just to prevent future cases like Cornell. We've got children far younger than University age behaving harmfully to other children.

For me, the most striking learning from cocreating our Weaving Stories of Peer Sexual Abuse animation was:

💡 The degree to which "low-level" behaviours are normalised, yet research suggests that settings where this level of activity is not addressed are the context in which more extreme incidences are more likely.

💡Our animation's emphasis on the impact of this behaviour helped young people recognise that "low-level" behaviours are not harmless.

💡The impact on the young people engaging in our animation was greater for boys.

If "boys are overwhelmingly the perpetrators" of harmful sexual behaviour, even where other boys are the victims, it is critical that work that engages boys is funded.

We need to help them recognise what is happening & what is not acceptable, the impact it has & the ways they can respond if they see something a peer is doing that they now understand is likely to harm the person on the receiving end.

We cannot have our boys getting to Higher Education & not being ready to call out the harmful behaviour of their peers.

Image

We attended a really interesting webinar last week via the Teenage Relationship Abuse Community of Practice, convened by...
02/10/2026

We attended a really interesting webinar last week via the Teenage Relationship Abuse Community of Practice, convened by the .

So many of the key points rang true with the work we have been doing in this area over the last few years:

💡 That harmful behaviours are starting at a younger age.

💡That we need to see much earlier interventions before unhealthy behaviours go beyond normalised to entrenched.

💡That there is an intersection of the contexts in which harmful behaviours are being displayed, crossing between the privacy of intimate partner relationships to things happening in the public space.

💡That young people need to be more explicitly supported to understand how relationships actually work. And not just intimate ones. Relationships in general. With family. With friends. What are the building blocks that make ongoing interactions between humans feel healthy rather than harmful?

💡That young people need to be supported to develop the self-awareness to understand why they are making certain choices to be able to be in a position to consider making other, healthier, choices.

💡That professionals who engage with young people need greater confidence to be able to tackle these tricky topics, unpicking attitudes and behaviours with young people in ways that enable them to engage rather than defend and retreat.

So much of the learning content we have been developing at Changing Relations reflects these understandings and works to address them:

🎬 our peer sexual abuse-themed animation - Weaving Stories

🎬 our toxic teen relationship-themed film - A is for Amy

🎬 our stories of harmful things happening at home - Sometimes it Hurts

Obviously in this somewhat horrendous financial climate for the VCSE sector, the elephant in the room is funding for people such as ourselves (and others) who are doing this vital work to be able to reach more schools and youth groups with the fabulous content we have developed!!!

Any spare change down the back of your sofa folks - give us a shout!!!

Photo credit
Image featuring actors

01/10/2026

Several of the Changing Relations team had a fun trip out to the very fancy new art gallery last night. Really exciting to see this new addition to the cultural landscape of our county.

This time last week we were at the report launch at the beautiful Middlesbrough Town Hall hearing some really sobering ...
30/09/2026

This time last week we were at the report launch at the beautiful Middlesbrough Town Hall hearing some really sobering stories and statistics.

Imagine a vulnerable 16 year old lad who has moved here to get away from something unpleasant in his home land and has engaged in a learning and support process to help him integrate and make his steps into education and employment but finds himself being shoved and spat at on public transport.

The report, led by the very inspiring , indicates that 54% of those they spoke to had directly experienced racism, rising to 78% who felt it to be an everyday issue.

Of those with direct experience, 1/3 experienced it on public transport.

And this is where the coalition's point about being anti-racist rather than simply non-racist feels relevant. Because it means things are happening in a context where others have observed and I wonder how many of those bystanders took action in any shape or form.

Interestingly, given the claims of many right wing oriented groups that they are motivated by protecting women's safety, 70% of those who experienced direct racism were women.

The North East Anti-Racism Coalition is such a brilliant collective of people who are absolutely committed to changing this picture and who get that doing so means meeting people where they are. We are really looking forward to seeing what programmes it's possible for us to collaboratively develop.

But you can become part of the conversation too - whether as a representative of the organisation you work for or on your own account as an individual - https://northeastantiracism.org.uk/become-the-bridge/

Funders make so much possible for not-for-profit organisations like Changing Relations. It is easy to assume that what t...
28/09/2026

Funders make so much possible for not-for-profit organisations like Changing Relations. It is easy to assume that what they bring to a grantee is “just” money and that it is purely a transactional relationship.

“Just” money is hugely important – it is what makes much of the work that we do possible (and if anyone would like to contribute “just” money towards our work we’d love to hear from you).

But sometimes funders bring something that isn’t “just” pounds and pence.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation are currently funding our A is for Amy-Sometimes it Hurts project which addresses child/young person experiences of domestic abuse and teen relationship abuse. Within this project we have a small amount of time from the amazing Susanne Burns supporting our overall evaluation approach, particularly looking from a qualitative perspective. But we also have some really rich quantitative data and we know that we don’t currently have the skills we need to really make the most of that.

So, Kate asked the Paul Hamlyn Foundation if they could help us develop those skills and they said yes! They are hugely supportive of organisations developing skills to support the work they do and we are super grateful for this.

Thanks to a connection made by Susanne, Kate is now working with Tamsin Cox from DHA Communications developing her skills to really allow us to make the most of the quantitative data we are collecting. It’s a learning curve…but we're already seeing the fruit of it.

So, this is a thank you to The Paul Hamlyn Foundation for making this possible, Susanne Burns for the connection and Tamsin Cox for stretching Kate's brain (and making her grin as she sees more of what our data shows).

26/09/2026

There's a whole range of different ways we work with people. We love to meet people in person and get a sense of what our partner organisation or creative / academic collaborator wants and needs.

Fancy a chat?

Get in touch!

[email protected]

Can't believe a whole year has gone by since this amazing team came together to create our film A is for Amy!
23/09/2026

Can't believe a whole year has gone by since this amazing team came together to create our film A is for Amy!

Part 3 of our back-to-school intro to Changing Relations is about what we actually do!You know the themes we focus on an...
21/09/2026

Part 3 of our back-to-school intro to Changing Relations is about what we actually do!

You know the themes we focus on and the values we bring to our way of working.

But if you're wondering how you can actually work with us, this is the post for you!

We always have a funded project on the go - or in the pipeline - and we're always keen to work collaboratively with relevant partners. If you're interested in this, get in touch - [email protected]

But we're also super happy to share our expertise in a range of ways.

Over the course of our 13 years of operation, we have:

💡 Mentored creative practitioners and other voluntary sector organisations to support their planning of their own projects, in particular where these feature learning and engagement aimed at social impact.

💡 Been commissioned to draw from our portfolio of artworks to support other organisations to achieve their own learning and awareness objectives with their clients, participants or students.

💡 Developed training and resources that use our original impactful artworks to stimulate learning and reflection on our key themes.

💡 Delivered workshops using our artworks and creative methods to help schools, businesses and communities engage in whichever theme our host would like us to address.

We love how supported us to capture all of this on our new website, with pages outlining the different ways we can work with you and a lush set of case studies to show this in practice.

Take a look 👀

https://changingrelations.co.uk/how-we-help/workshops-schools/

Kate, our Artistic Director, was welcomed by the South West Durham Secondary Schools panel this week to share with them ...
18/09/2026

Kate, our Artistic Director, was welcomed by the South West Durham Secondary Schools panel this week to share with them the opportunity for their schools to take part in the next phase of our domestic abuse themed A is for Amy programme which helps young people have healthier relationships, and, if they do find themselves in an unhealthy relationship, better able to ask for help.

We are super excited to shortly begin training teachers, pastoral staff and youth workers to deliver the A is for Amy programme in their settings.

There is no cost to schools or youth groups to take part in the programme: we’ll be providing full training and a toolkit containing everything needed to undertake delivery, thanks to the support of our amazing funders.

If you would like to explore your school delivering the A is for Amy programme this year please get in touch with Kate ([email protected]).

The A is for Amy programme is generously supported by funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation , Arts Council England , North East Mayoral Strategic Authority , NHS, The National Lottery Community Fund , BAM Construction Ltd, Barbour and Gaunless Gateway.

18/09/2026

This is us trying to make sure that the exhibition we develop for the College of St Hild and St Bede incorporates as much as the staff and students we spoke to said they wanted to see in line with the messaging they agreed we need to convey 🤩

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