Facewind
Child-to-Parent Violvence
Beacon is a victim support organization based in Welwyn Garden City in partnership with Hertfordshire Police Headquarters.
In the summer of 2022, I acted as an informal design consultant in their new department called Family Hub, advising them on interventions on Child on Parent Violence (CPV) issues.
Useful links:
Context
Child on Parent Violence (CPV) or Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (APVA) is any behaviour used by a young person to control, dominate, or coerce their parents. It is often threatening and intimidating and can put family safety at risk.
Where child-on-parent violence (CPV) had occurred, prior to the Family Hub, Beacon was only able to support the parent. But then they recognised that often the parents were in desperate need of support for their child during this time of crisis.
Addressing the gap in support, the Beacon Family Hub will include group parent programmes, one-to-one support for children and parents, and restorative interventions for the whole family.
What is the problem?
At the time, Family Hub planned to offer a parenting program course in the new year based on the non-violence resistance(NVR) model. The course will provide a range of tools and techniques to support parents and carers of children/young people who display challenging attitudes and behaviours. And that's where they need me to apply service design thinking.
Through my research and conversations, I have established that there is no consistent or accurate terminology to define that kind of violence in the family, for the victim, the perpetrator, researchers and front-line staff. For example, many parents do not think that it is violence, but only think it is a normal behavior during the rebellious period; some parents refuse to call their children "criminals" or "violent" in front of the police; Children who are violent tend to be more confused because of the lack of definition of their status.
The lack of agreed terminology can present a negative impact on communication, relationships, programme delivery and effective reporting.
In the meantime, I found that there are already many organisations using NVR, and I also identified that these interventions rarely seem to meet the users’ needs precisely, and the language problem compounds this further.
Proposal
So, I proposed that:
'collaborate on designing an innovative parenting course; nurturing a range of new terms specific to this field, to deliver a distinct parenting educational experience rooted in the NVR theory. I envision that it will not only yield a people-centred program, but also bring a clearer and more caring way of communication to this underexplored area, which may bring Beacon closer to the North Stars'.
This proposal was adopted and incorporated into Beacon Family Hub's 2023 practice.
