In 2017 Katie completed her PhD in Social Work at the University of Melbourne entitled 'Embedding the Voices of Children and Young People who have experienced family violence in programs for fathers'. A summary of this research is provided below. To request copies of the digital stories for educational use or to obtain a copy of the full thesis Contact Us.
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The literature suggests that fatherhood is often used as a motivator to engage fathers in programs to address their violence yet evaluations of these programs rarely consider outcomes for children as a measure of success. In addition children and young people are rarely involved in their father's change process and their perspectives are seldom sought.
This research was undertaken in Victoria, Australia and asked 16 children and young people (aged 9-19 years) for their perspectives on fathers in the context of family violence as well as the key messages they have for fathers who attend a program to address their violence.
The research also trialed the development and use of digital storytelling as a way to embed these key messages in programs and explores what the likely impacts are on programs for fathers who use violence and their participants.
The research found that children and young people described reparation and the need for their fathers to ‘make amends’ for their violence as important. The desire for reparation was present for both children and young people who hoped to have a more positive relationship with their father in the future, but also for those who did not wish to have any ongoing contact. Regardless, almost universally children and young people believed that some form of reparation from their father would help them ‘repair’ and allow them to move on with their lives. Young people saw reparation as comprising three key components: addressing the past, commitment to change and rebuilding trust.
In the second stage of the research, 8 young people attended a workshop where they made digital stories about their key messages for fathers who use violence. Children and young people wrote the script, selected the images and music and recorded the voice-over to accompany the story.
A workshop was later run with program facilitators and managers working with men who use violence about the possible impacts of introducing the digital stories into programs for fathers who use violence.
Program managers were generally supportive of the inclusion of the stories and identified some key issues for programs to consider before introducing the stories into programs.
Links to three of the digital stories are provided below- to obtain all 8 stories please Contact Us.
Story 1: When I saw you yesterday
