Across Australia, governments, service providers, and researchers are increasingly recognising and measuring the prevalence of domestic, family and sexualised perpetrated against children and young people. There is also increasing recognition of children as primary victims of domestic, family and sexualised violence, and the need for tailored services for children and young people.

Evidence shows that group interventions with children and young people can improve child and carer wellbeing, improve child behaviour and increase parenting skills and confidence, as well as improving the child-carer bond. The group format also provides children and young people with peer-support and allows participants to practice relational skills in a supportive social environment.

There are currently few group interventions available for children and young people who have experienced domestic, family and sexualised violence in Australia. To fill this gap, Relationships Australia NSW (RANSW) developed a pilot group intervention to offer therapeutic and educational learning to children and their protective carers.

This pilot program was developed by RANSW practitioners with support from RANSW’s Research & Impact team to co-design a program theory of change and design evaluation at the earliest stage. RANSW has now run this pilot program and have made several key learnings. In particular, we learned of the primary importance of including both protective carers and children in group intervention as many carers explained that their child would not have attended the program on their own. Additionally, we learned that the group format helped people with shared experiences to connect and feel less alone. This group program also created pathways for referral and ongoing support for participants.

This presentation will present our learnings from co-developing a theory of change for a group program supporting child wellbeing and relationships following experiences of domestic violence and/or child sexual abuse.