Changing Relations

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Changing Relations

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

14/11/2025

Murtagh performs a kind of magic when she writes & directs…there’s no other way to describe it.

From a room of participants & creative practitioners she absorbs ideas, thoughts, feelings, ways of being & creates powerful words & directions that make everyone feel listened to & heard…
..it’s alchemy.

But she’s more than ‘just’ a phenomenal writer & director – she creates spaces full of possibility, creativity, care & openness. It’s these which enable people to engage in projects in the fullest & most meaningful sense – whether as a participant or a fellow creative practitioner.

Young people involved in our projects have described her as:
“calm & smart”
“she’s very good at breaking down what her job involves and techniques to make a successful film”
“A kind & lovely person”
“Always smiling”
“I loved when Zoë was here – she’s positive all the time”
“Happy and fun to be around”.

Zoe described working on our Weaving Stories of Peer S*xual Abuse project as “an incredible experience, […] a privilege to work with incredible collaborators, from young activists & teachers to expert artists & actors. Changing Relations value authenticity & equality in everything they do, & it’s been amazing to undertake this journey of ‘co-creation’ to produce something that feels reflective, urgent & at times transformational, not only through the produced artwork but through the surrounding workshops, conversations & chats in classrooms & meeting rooms with tea & biscuits”.

It’s been amazing collaborating with Zoe on a number of projects including Weaving Stories of Peer S*xual Abuse & A is for Amy – if you haven’t thought of involving her in your projects…do!

Zoe is an award-winning director & writer whose work explores themes of gender, class, climate & social change. She has recently been shortlisted for the JMK Director's Award with the JMK Trust & The Orange Tree Theatre. She’s worked with organisations such as the National Theatre, the RSC, Northern Stage, Shakespeare North Playhouse, the BBC, BALTIC & New Writing North.

Find out more here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/artists/zoe-murtagh/

12/11/2025

Our wonderful intern Thea Stedman-Jones has been reflecting on her experience with Changing Relations:

When I first found Changing Relations I was so excited to find an organisation based in the North East that used Art to create meaningful change but I could not have imagined not only what a range of interesting projects I would have the privilege of being part of and how much I would learn, the wonderful sense of community and the lovely people I would meet.

The largest part of my placement was focused on the next stage of development of their ‘A is for Amy’ project. Originally based on a story from ‘Sometimes it hurts’ I was working with young people from Creative Youth Opportunities to turn the stage show ‘A is for Amy’ into a film to be used to educate young people about domestic violence. Amazing set designer Anna Robinson planned the week to work with the wonderful young people to create set and costume designs for the production. We started the week watching the film of the theatre production and discussing initial reactions and thoughts to the piece. Over the days we made character profiles of every character, discussed their backgrounds and relationships with each other, thought of references and made costume and set designs. They collated much of the material into large colleges for each character with details like perfume and cloth samples. I greatly enjoyed helping out in Anna’s workshops practically with keeping the space tidy, helping with the structure of the week, documenting the activities and the pastoral aspect of helping ensure everyone is okay.

On the final day everything came together and it was incredible watching the young people confidently and comprehensively present their ideas to Zoe, the writer and director. Though the intention was to help only with visual design, the sheer volume and quality of the work that the young people produced touched on every part of the production. The word electric best describes the atmosphere in the room as ideas about character motivation, set detail and choreography flew around the room. Zoe left visibly inspired by the young people’s ideas. The young people themselves spoke about how important they felt the issues discussed were and how much fun they had doing the project.

We ended the week with a reflective task in which proud or ‘the P word’ as the young people called it was thrown around in an emotional exercise where we reflected on the events of the week. We discussed what went well, what could have been improved upon and what the young people learnt. Not only was it clear the young people got a lot out of the week, this task made me realise how much I did too.

The experience of working in a team to create something meaningful has really stuck with me, and I am very grateful to Changing Relations for the opportunity.

10/11/2025

A month ago today we finished filming A is for Amy, our play about navigating toxic teen relationships and the power of friendship.

As you can imagine the rehearsals and filming were an emotionally heavy time for everyone involved: creating any production is always hard work, but working on the theme of teen domestic abuse is a whole additional level of emotional load, especially with a significant number of domestic abuse survivors within the team.

Creating a space where we are able to do this work is hard.

It takes effort.

It takes planning.

And it takes the right attitude.

And do we always get this stuff right?

Of course not.

We are all human. We all make mistakes.

But hopefully with the right frameworks and attitudes fewer things go wrong. And, when they don’t go how we would have liked, they are attended to, not ignored.

And this is really important.

It’s how we make it feel ok to speak up about things.

It’s how we learn.

It’s how we make future safer, better, more creative spaces.

So, we are taking this moment to thank the A is for Amy team.

Thank you for planning.

Thank you for making the effort.

Thank you for showing up with your whole selves.

And thank you, above all, for your desire to make the A is for Amy environment the best we possibly could.

Murtagh , Katja Roberts, Lucy Marie Curry, Anna Robinson, Chloe Ribbens, Kaitlyn Maxfield, Maya Torres, Jonny Larman, Magnus Dennison, the Meerkat filming team, Sue Spencer, Lisa Davis and Kate Gorman.

Thanks to our funders who are making this project possible: Paul Hamlyn Foundation , Arts Council England , East Combined Authority , The Barbour Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund .

07/11/2025

Well it's a little late but here is our annual report for the business year ending this time last year.

Take a little look at what we got up to and we promise to be a little more prompt with the next one!!!

https://changingrelations.co.uk/about/reports/

Design credit

05/11/2025

!Wellbeing Wednesday!

Thanks so much to the North East Combined Authority for including us in the line up for the Time to Shine - Supporting Health and Wellbeing at Work webinar last week.

It was great to be able to foreground domestic abuse as a workplace wellbeing issue alongside & Rise North East

As this clip from our Us Too soundscape shows, there is a clear link between experiencing domestic abuse and mental health difficulty.

If connection is an ingredient in positive mental health, isolation is the inverse.

So, if you notice a colleague or friend becoming increasingly isolated, this could be a sign that they are in a controlling relationship.

It is worth noting that, if mental injuries arising from domestic abuse have a substantial long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, they will satisfy the definition of a disability under the Equality Act 2010.

This means it's a good idea for any employers with a Staff Wellbeing Policy to consider how domestic abuse could be incorporated, as domestic abuse is absolutely a workplace issue.

Image credit Lizzie Lovejoy Illustration

03/11/2025

[Lisa here]

It's taken me a bit of time to write about the incredible news that has been successful in her campaign for government to repeal the presumption of parental involvement in cases where there has been domestic abuse in families with children.

As a parent, the thought of what Claire has been through, catches in my throat.

Anyone whose work relates to these themes will do an amount of compartmentalising to cope with the continued focus on distressing behaviour & experiences.

But there are certain moments that knock us for six.

This news reminded me of transcribing the stories of diverse domestic abuse survivors we gathered for our Us Too soundscape.

I was listening, typing, listening, typing, listening...
..until I got to the story of a woman whose son had followed in the footsteps of his abusive father & become so dangerous to her & her daughters that, for their safety, she had to stop his access to their home.

It stopped me in my tracks. I sucked in my breath. I could feel my heart in my throat.

The idea that your relationship with your child, who you love unconditionally, could be so profoundly corroded by the pattern of abuse & control & manipulation established by their other parent.

“I just live alone here with my daughters. The coercive control, the nature of that still has an impact. You can never really escape from that. If there were no children, potentially I could escape from the abuse, but with the children, still having contact, that’s impossible to do. The heart-breaking consequences are what’s happening to my son as a result.”

You can see the love in her words. Her son is abusing her. But she is heartbroken by what has happened TO him.

That broke my heart.

To hear her say she wanted to share her story with us...

"to help other survivors"
..broke it a little more.

So even though the news is pivotal, & Claire is an incredible woman who has used the pain of losing the lives of her beloved children at the hands of their abusive father to help others guard against that fate, it took me a minute.

What an incredible act of courage & strength & love & bravery.

Image credit

31/10/2025

[Lisa here]

I want to take a moment to set out why I was so upset by a news clip of former politician, Rory Stewart, dismissing the media focus on Virginia Giuffre Roberts and Prince Andrew, since, in his view, it's old news and we should be focused on the current wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Clearly the stories of suffering in war-ravaged Gaza and Ukraine are enormously important to tell.

But throughout history, women's stories of private suffering have been subsumed by political stories of war, armies, nations, as if they are too small, too insignificant for public attention.

And this dismissal feels more of the same.

Of course there is a question of the scale of the destruction of life.

But there is also a question of the fundamental set of values and behaviours we want to promote (or discourage) in the world we would wish to protect.

And there is a line connecting private and public displays of power that disregard the rights of others, whether this is a world leader wreaking destruction on those of another nationality, ethnicity, religion, or an individual who uses their wealth and status to abuse s*xually-trafficked girls.

The drive is the same. It is about domination without empathy for the other.

What this means is that everything we do to challenge this mode of behaviour is important even if the scale may seem small or insignificant. If we call out abuse of power, hold these individuals to account, listen to the stories of those who have suffered, encourage empathy and equality, we are discouraging the power-wielding construct that seeks to dominate others, whether through s*xual abuse or war (and let's not forget that s*xual abuse is often used as a weapon of war).

Yes it is absolutely important to focus on the outrage of ongoing war and mass destruction of life.

It is also important to focus on the way in which power and status have enabled men's s*xual abuse of women and girls.

Image credit

29/10/2025

It was really interesting last week to get to see Workie Ticket Theatre's new play Geordie Gaol Girls.

We found the parallels between women's treatment 100 years ago and the present day pretty affecting, especially given the recent news cycle around Virginia Giuffre Roberts' posthumously published book "Nobody's Girl" and the claim Prince Andrew had sought to discredit her.

Why?

Writer JoJo Kirtley's research into the archives of Newcastle City Gaol uncovered a high proportion of women having been imprisoned for prostitution, with the reality often having been that this was survival s*x for those from impoverished or abusive backgrounds in a period of time in which women had minimal rights, access to education or employment options.

On the one hand, in many countries today, there has been a transformation in women's rights, access to education and employment options (although it's worth noting that this is not universally the case).

On the other hand, the societal / media response to women who come forward to make allegations of s*x trafficking indicate that we still have a lot of progress to make. There continues to be blame attributed to the women who find themselves in such situations, an assumption it was a free and deliberate choice, a will to problematise or even criminalise their wider behaviour.

In the case of Virginia Giuffre Roberts, she outlines the abuse and poverty she had already experienced before she was targeted by Maxwell and Epstein whilst she was still a child. This is not dissimilar to the experience of the Geordie Gaol Girls 100 years ago - vulnerable women, targeted for their vulnerability, and then blamed and shamed for the "choices" they made.

And this is why it's so important that we listen to women's stories, that we add herstory to history - a lovely element that is woven into Workie Ticket's script is the framing device of a team of archivists at Newcastle Gaol adding the stories of its female inmates to the official records.

Thank you for inviting us to your preview lasses 🙏

27/10/2025

Lush throwback to a carousel day focused on SAFETY that the lovely delivered for us at Marden High in North Shields.

The year 7 groups were tasked with creating a healthy relationship manifesto and we particularly love that this young person wanted people in their life who:

📜 consult me

📜 understand me

📜 [are] weird like me

📜 [are] kind

Absolutely this!

Next up, year 9 and a focus on RESPECT. Will report back!

24/10/2025

This is another one of our project throwback posts as we make sure everything we have done over the last 12 years is documented for our new website designed by

This time we are harking back to our fabulous Let's Talk about S*x project, which was developed in response to various incidents and findings that indicated problematic s*xual attitudes amongst young people:

😔 86% of 18-24 year olds have experienced s*xual harassment with 98% not reporting, believing it wouldn’t change anything (UN Women UK)

😔 90% of girls have experienced s*xist name-calling or been sent unwanted explicit pictures or videos (Ofsted)

In this project, we formed a Student Social Action Group made up of young people from and , enabling us to collect experience-based, age-specific information about young people’s s*xual attitudes and behaviour and commission artwork that responded to their specific concerns.

Here you can see lush pieces from ✨ ✨ and ✨ ✨

At the end of the project:

💪 100% of our Student Social Action Group felt better able to recognise unhealthy s*xual behaviours, including those they would have previously overlooked

💪 75% reported (or supported someone they know to report) inappropriate behaviour, or accessed (helped someone they know to access) support as a victim of inappropriate behaviour

We went on to devise a CPD for educators based around this project's artwork called Positive and Inclusive Relationships and S*x Education:

💪 85% of teachers felt strongly that it raised their awareness of how to navigate consent and coercion in a more nuanced way, more applicable to students' real life relationships

💪 94% of youth workers felt more confident to explore the themes with their young people

22/10/2025

We were chuffed to bits to be part of the North East's first festival last week - and even more chuffed at the depth of engagement that participating young people demonstrated in our Weaving Stories animation.

Our highlights:

😁 's demonstration of just how enormous the screen is
😁 all those lovely hands in the air wanting to offer answers and ask questions
😁 Gala Durham 's tech wizard Eve sorting out the inevitable pre-event tech palaver - all the flashy red and green buttons!!!
😁 a young man, without any prompting whatsoever, recognising the intended artistic effect whereby, "You could tell when the young people were upset because the colour drained away from them."

But also, the young people's responses to our workshop...

It was so evident that they had engaged deeply in the content we had shared and really grasped our key message that, whilst all sorts of unwanted s*xual behaviours may have been normalised, they may nevertheless have a significant mental and emotional impact on their peers.

When we asked, "Is this serious?" there was a resounding "YES!"

And they were sensitive to the longer term effects, whereby those on the receiving end of harmful behaviour might:

😔 be afraid to be on their own in future
😔 feel that their sense of trust has been ruined
😔 not feel safe
😔 feel less likely to go out
😔 not want to go to school

We loved the empathy these young people displayed.

And their will to go on and be active bystanders, supporting their peers as best they can.

💓 They really are the future 💓

20/10/2025

Last week was the first Coercive Control Awareness Day.

Coercive control is a pattern of behaviour used to dominate, isolate and intimidate an intimate partner and was formally recognised as a criminal offence 10 years ago under the Serious Crime Act 2015.

We are really pleased to have been invited by the North East Combined Authority to speak about domestic abuse to employers looking to engage in their brand new SHINE employer accreditation scheme.

One of the clips we will be sharing include this one from our Us Too soundscape where "Elizabeth" talks about the persistent class-based stereotype that makes it really hard for professionals who are experiencing domestic abuse to gain the support they need.

“There’s an assumption when you talk about coercive control, you can always see that people are thinking, “That would never happen to me; I would be cleverer than that.” So there’s an assumption that, if you are a victim, “You must be very naïve or you must be not very bright.” So if you look at some educated women in quite powerful middle class jobs, accountants, doctors, women who are seen as intelligent, that’s another reason why people would think they can’t possibly be a victim of coercive control, because they think they would be too clever to let that happen to them. And there’s not an understanding of really how subversive and cleverly manipulative that is.”

It is brilliant to see that Beam 1 - the Foundation level - requires employers to put plans and policies in place to support common triggers of mental health decline, with domestic abuse specifically referenced.

Us Too features the voices of a diverse range of real survivors who shared their stories as they wanted to help others get the help they need. The soundscape was coproduced by with illustrations by .

Address

Studio 18, Ushaw Historic House, Chapel And Gardens
Durham
DH77DW

Telephone

+447815837034

Website

http://www.changingrelations.co.uk/contact-us/

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What We Do

Changing Relations C.I.C. is an arts-based education and training company that challenges thinking around gender norms, gender equality and healthy relationships, using creative methods to provide original educational and training resources.

We work with artists, communities and experts to produce powerful content in a range of art forms to engage audiences and participants; from film, music, theatre and dance to creative writing and visual arts.

We address topical and sensitive subjects, such as domestic abuse, male mental health and s*xting risks, in an accessible way, giving a voice to those people who have been affected and generating public and professional understanding.