Don’t Look Away: Recognising and Responding to Domestic Abuse

Director’s Blog- Originally posted on LinkedIn on December 18, 2024 by Artistic Director Kate Gorman

How are Christmas and football matches the same?

They both cause a rise in the incidence of domestic violence.

A truth we would never want to find in our Christmas dinner cracker, but which sadly many people won’t be able to avoid this Christmas.

In the midst of seasonal festivities (and life in general) it is easy to ignore warning signs of domestic abuse.

Easy to not say anything because we feel we don’t know what to say.

Easy to not say anything because we are worried about how to deal with what someone might say back to us.

Easy to not say anything when we see someone behaving abusively because we’re scared that we might make things worse… or because we’re scared of what the abuser might do to us.

Empowering Communities to Act

In partnership with Creative Youth Opportunities CIC, Groundwork North East & Cumbria, Blackhall Community Centre (Alison Paterson) and No More Nowt, Changing Relations C.I.C. is currently developing a project called “Don’t Look Away.” This initiative aims to support local communities in confidently identifying signs of domestic abuse, encouraging people to take action, provide appropriate support, and signpost individuals to specialist services.

While this project won’t be in place for this Christmas, we look forward to seeing its positive impact on people’s lives in the future.

In the meantime, if you are worried about someone this festive period, the free online resources created by WWIN Domestic Abuse Services may be helpful: www.wefindaway.org.uk

Survivors we have worked with over the years have always expressed gratitude to the people who were brave enough to reach out to them.

Don’t Look Away.

Image credit: Jayne Johnson, created during an artist-in-residency at Blackhall Community Centre as part of our community consultation to shape the Don’t Look Away project.