Changing Relations

11/01/2026

here

I just want to take a moment to give a great big shout out to for championing the role of being an older woman scaffolding younger women's activism. What a lush concept.

I so appreciate...

💖 your support to enable me to recognise all the elements I am holding in my role ie it's okay to be exhausted - it's exhausting!!!

💖 the space you provide for us as a team to recognise where we thrive and where we struggle and how we can work on feeling more of the former and less of the latter!

💖 the encouragement to set healthy boundaries to spare our batteries so that we are able to keep on doing the important work we need to do in the world

💖 the space to reflect on how we want to work so that we live our values and what this means in terms of how we might approach board recruitment

You add such value to Changing Relations at all levels of operation and we really appreciate having you to enable us to reflect meaningfully and constructively.

With thanks to the lovely for this lush depiction of our super Sue!

09/01/2026

Lovely to start the new term by diving straight into it with our fabulous educator partners ahead of a term in which our creative facilitators Sarah Stamp Ashlea Sanderson & Victoria Downes Author will be piloting brand new schemes of work based around our film A is for Amy and story series Sometimes it Hurts.

Thanks so much to:

✨ Sacriston Youth Project Copeland Road Primary School Edmondsley Primary Academy & King James I Academy for taking the time out of your schedule to go every step of the way with us on this learning journey.

✨ And to Laurel Avenue Community Association for hosting us for the day.

✨ Fab also to welcome new colleagues from George Stephenson High School

We're so happy to have such great on-the-ground expertise working with us on this project & can't wait to see how delivery goes over the coming weeks & months!

Thanks to North East Combined Authority Arts Council England Paul Hamlyn Foundation The National Lottery Community Fund & the Barbour Foundation for supporting this vital work.

04/01/2026

here... on art & being human!

A Christmas gig at got me musing on how artistic expression is such a pure reflection of what it is to be human.

was performing his Bewilderbeast album in full & getting frustrated that he couldn't feel the music & what struck me was the absolute vulnerability of his performance.

It got me thinking about the bravery of artists of all kinds - musicians, writers, visual artists - who capture something about their own experience: how a break-up felt, what it's like to watch your children become independent decision-making adults, a relationship with a mentor, how they see the world...

They take this experience, shape it through the creative medium they use, offer it up to the world to respond to, & in so doing, create the possibility for connection - the relief & resonance that someone has articulated something you've also felt, the insight into an experience different to our own that enables us to empathise.

There's something so vulnerable about this process. It's like communication at its purest: this is me; what do you think?

And it made me think of social media too (my brain is a very jumpy dot-joiny sort of place!) - of what we're all doing here, if not engaging in this process of putting ourselves out there & hoping for some resonance.

Of course not all communication in this sphere - or indeed the culture sector - is unclouded by other intentions.

People need to make money. They might be trying to satisfy the requirements of a commission, persuading us to take a view, wanting to impress us, aggrandize themselves or exert power over others...

So much of our energy is spent sifting through all of the communication we are bombarded with in the digital age, working out how to read the messages coming our way.

But for me, the bravest communication is the one stripped of any other intent, the pure act of saying, here I am, here is how I experience the world.

And that's why I love working in the culture sector, surrounded by people who feel to their core the importance of artistic expression as a way to create connection.

Image credit

03/01/2026

If you are based in the North East and have been frustrated by the surge in racist sentiment in recent months, take a look at the events that the North East Anti-Racism Coalition have planned to bring communities together proactively to counter this agenda across the region.

Looking at progress made so far, the next steps we need to take and success stories from around the North East.

01/01/2026

It's nearly time for us to emerge from our period of seasonal social media hibernation.

Here's hoping the festive season has felt like this...

With thanks to for this lush depiction of the warmth of friendship.

22/12/2025

here

If you've got kids in Year 10, you'll no doubt have heard snippets of their thinking about school plans for work experience later in the year. Generally in our house, this has been met with disinterest and disgruntlement - and certainly no inclination towards a career in arts and culture 😆

But with my work hat (instead of my Mum hat) on, I had the pleasure of engaging with Year 9s from a range of County Durham schools who *had* expressed an interest in the arts and whose schools had brought them to for a Creative Careers engagement day.

I completely failed to remember to get any pics of the day itself, so here is a snap shot of what I got the groups to do...
..namely, a "discovery" task where they had to scan through a range of our publications and try to work out:

💥 what we actually do as an organisation

💥 how this activity can help us understand the concepts of "community art" and "engagement"

💥 what kind of job roles feature across the breadth of our activity

After a somewhat circuitous route from through work for Arts Council England / , voluntary roles in Eastern Europe, teacher training back in the North East and a stint teaching for the , it took me a good while to learn about the breadth and diversity of roles within the culture sector and realise that this is definitely the place for me 🤩

So it was really fantastic to be invited to get involved in this day to put the culture sector well and truly on our young people's radar as an exciting and fulfilling career possibility.

Thanks to and County Durham Cultural Education Partnership for this important initiative.

Here's to the next one!!!

Image credit

19/12/2025

here...

I feel like I should be heartened by the strategy.

It contains so much that marries with the work that we do - and have been doing with schools and communities for the last 12 years.

But honestly, I'm just so tired.

Tired of trying to raise funds for exactly this kind of proactive preventative awareness-raising work against a horrendous VCSE-sector funding climate.

Funds that are often short-term, project-based and mean that we are perpetually in survival-mode.

Charitable funders are massively over-subscribed.

Police and Crime Commissioners have been told they are to be decommissioned meaning the potential for proactive commissioning in the period of time before they officially finish is significantly diminished.

The level of need that the VCSE sector is trying to meet in the community is such that we are often told that our prevention-oriented work sounds great but that funders have had to prioritise front-line support services - which we absolutely understand!

Yet we know from our partners in the VCSE sector that even some of these services are struggling to secure the funds to be there for those in desperate need.

So, whilst it is absolutely brilliant that the government is releasing this much-needed strategy, I'm just waiting to see what it will mean in terms of the funds for organisations like ours to do what we are here to do.

Image credit perfectly capturing how I feel in this moment.

18/12/2025

Bit of a throwback to a day our fab creative facilitator spent at last month with a group of year 9s.

The theme for the carousel day was respect and challenging unhealthy relationship behaviours.

We used Amy's story from our Sometimes it Hurts series to identify examples of (un)healthy and (dis)respectful behaviour and went on to create placards for an imagined protest about the need for respect in relationships.

We liked the whirlwind with the words "love" and "fun poking out the sides hinting at the need to be mindful of love-bombing type behaviour that can initially draw us in.

Also the idea of a "grow kindness" tree and the sense that making someone's day better should be an integral ingredient of our attitude to our relationships.

12/12/2025

here

Today I'm wanting to send trans-solidarity vibes into the world.

In preparing a pilot CPD for the educator partners involved in our current project in which we'll explore the way in which domestic abuse is gendered, I was sifting through statistics to build a picture of who is victimised and to what degree.

It's really sobering.

SafeLives data indicates that up to 80% of trans people experience abusive behaviour from a partner or ex partner.

Crown Prosecution Service has collated data showing that:

💔 62-73% of transgender people have experienced harassment / violence because they identified as trans

💔 80% are fearful of a range of public situations with half avoiding public toilets

💔 91% of transgender boys and 66% of transgender girls have experienced harassment at school leading to depression and social isolation

What really stood out to me in the SafeLives data was that both trans men and trans women were more likely to have a male than a female abuser, with 81% of those behaving abusively male.

Why did this stand out?

With all of the public toilet furor that blasts in and out of the news with unpleasant regularity, the implication is that trans people are to be feared.

Don't get me wrong, as someone who has spent 12 years working with the theme of domestic abuse, I get that women who have been victimised by men often want women-only spaces to support their psychological safety.

But why on earth are we tarnishing a group who are amongst the most victimised of all with the fear brush?

It would be so lovely if we could move away from this rancorous age of intolerance to one in which we focus on empathy and equality for all.

The image I'm sharing with this post was amongst the artwork our Student Social Action Group commissioned as part of our Let's Talk About S*x project, displaying a trans man getting to know himself post op. It was really important to the group to be LGBTQIA+ inclusive in thinking about s*x and relationships, including the relationships we have with ourselves.

Thanks for the beautiful image (https://mernywernz.com/ABOUT-1).

Peace out people!

10/12/2025

16 days - day 16

Today marks the final day of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. It is also International Human Rights Day.

Over the past 16 days, we have explored:

⚠️ a range of different manifestations of digital abuse, from nonconsensual intimate image sharing to social media surveillance and using mobile communication to control your partner's movements and access to support

⚠️ various aspects of s*xual and relationship behaviour that might be harmful and make someone uncomfortable

⚠️ the range of ways we can when we see anything from harmful s*xist jokes to unwanted s*xual behaviours

⚠️ the impact of speaking up - or not - when someone is experiencing abuse or harassment, including the seemingly "small" behaviours that nevertheless make receipients feel uncomfortable

⚠️ a range of contexts in which we can Speak Up, from the workplace, to the street, to public transport, the classroom and school corridors

Let's create a culture where women and girls feel safe and confident. It's our right!

If you think we could help you in your context with a workshop based around any of the themes we have addressed over the last 16 days, get in touch - info@changingrelations.co.uk

Image credit












White Ribbon UK
UN Women

North East Combined Authority

09/12/2025

16 days - day 15

Today we've chosen to feature photos from rehearsals for our new film A is for Amy.

These images show Amy being supported by friend Frankie, then college tutor Vanessa after Frankie has expressed concerns about Amy in an email.

We wanted to share this from the perspective as it's useful to be aware of the range of different ways young people can support friends they are worried about.

In the story, Amy becomes increasingly isolated from her friends due to her boyfriend's jealousy & control. She sometimes finds herself locked in the flat & sometimes is so down she can't face going to college, even though she was the star student on her course.

Thankfully she has lush friends (this wasn't an accident!!! - we wanted to create a pro-social model of young people accessing help) who realise that barely ever seeing her - & her increasingly erratic college attendance - could be signs everything isn't as rosy as her social media account portrays.

We see Frankie agonise over messaging Vanessa. He doesn't want to betray Amy & is worried she will be cross. But he is worried about her wellbeing.

What was important for us to show is that there are adults young people can talk to, who can make referrals to specialist support.

This is because when we were planning the project, we came across data showing that 25% of 13-17 year old girls experience intimate partner abuse whilst support service referrals are lower than the proportion affected, meaning that young people in toxic relationships are going under the radar.

In some situations, this indirect approach to might be the safer option. Frankie was concerned that Amy's boyfriend Dean was monitoring her phone, so if he raised his worries directly with her, he risked putting her in danger if Dean became angry she had allowed someone to see what was going on.

We can't wait to share the film with you - hopefully for a screening in the new year - watch this space!

Image credit

Photos feature

08/12/2025

16 days - day 14

In working with young people on the theme of being an , we felt it was important to highlight a range of different options for .

So, as well as actively calling out someone's behaviour, or reporting behaviour we think is unacceptable, we also explored options such as supporting the victim. In our Weaving Stories animation, a group of young people all went to visit the Wellbeing Officer together to provide moral support to those who had tricky experiences to share.

The image we're sharing today is a throwback to a previous project themed around young people's s*xual attitudes and behaviours, where the lovely artist was commissioned by our Student Social Action Group to create a series of images reinforcing positive relationship behaviours such as effective communication, self-care and kindness towards others.

The key illustration she created is a prompt to think about safety and the need for bystander intervention.

We have talked in a range of posts about the public behaviours that affect women's perceptions of safety. It's entirely normal in conversations with other women to talk about the discomfort of walking alone in the dark and to reference clutching onto your keys as a tool to use in self-defence in case of an attack.

Obviously this shouldn't be normal. Women and girls should be able to move freely without fear of harassment or violence.

But as it is the case, it's worth considering what we can do to support a woman or girl we see being made to feel uncomfortable in public. Can we stand by them or walk with them to discourage the unwanted attention?

There are lots of different ways we can











White Ribbon UK
UN Women

North East Combined Authority