Changing Relations

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Changing Relations

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

03/04/2026

Here you can see our MD with the fabulous girls - Liv and Freyja - getting ready to co-facilitate a workshop on our toxic teen relationship-themed film, A is for Amy at the Brighter Futures conference being hosted over the Easter holidays by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and .

The girls were very clear that they wanted the focus of our workshop to be on what adults need to understand in order to be able to support young people who are affected by these kinds of traumatic experiences.

In the picture here we are painstakingly checking through the film to identify the clips the girls want to show to help illustrate the points they want to make.

Our favourite bit of the session was when we discussed how we were going to manage in the tight timeframe we have. We wanted to be sure the girls felt comfortable to facilitate their segment and were tickled pink by Freyja's finger-wagging as she told us she would be very clear with the grown ups they were only allowed to say 1 thing each 😆 🤩

It is absolutely fabulous to see a conference focused on young people's health and wellbeing that has young people at its core, shaping the issues we should be talking about to set policy and develop projects that support them. And the girls are relishing the opportunity for their voices to be heard.

Massive kudos to for weaving this depth of coproduction into an academic conference. We are delighted to be involved.

And if anyone fancies taking a little peak at the brand new trailer for A is for Amy that lovely has magicked up for us, it is here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_Rsvi6hB_o&feature=youtu.be

01/04/2026

For the past few months we have been supporting to develop workshops based around their forced marriage-themed play Firestorm which had premiered at Hartlepool Town Hall Theatre (Creative Hartlepool) before Christmas.

Transformers brought together organisations supporting minoritised communities across Teesside ( Project CIC Purple Rose Stockton Connect360 ) who worked together to identify objectives & develop activities, based around clips of the play.

We agreed to highlight:

✒️ that forced marriage is not promoted by religion but is a cultural practice

✒️ the similarities between forced marriage & domestic abuse

✒️ the punishments associated with both

✒️ the support available nationally & across Teesside

✒️ the barriers that get in the way of people from different cultures accessing support if they are experiencing this

We went on to deliver the co-designed workshops to the 3 community groups, ending with a session sharing what we had done with who had funded the work.

Here are some of the comments we received -

💖 "Proud this work exists & at the multi cultural approach."

💖 "I am sat in a room filled with love & acceptance & that feeling needs to be taken further into the world."

💖 "It's a wonderful initiative. Hope to have more of this."

💖 "I want to come again & learn more."

💖 "I am happy to learn new information. I want to stand up for my right. I want to speak out when I am not happy."

💖 "I am very happy seeing different communities coming together & talking to each other."

💖 "Feeling happy because I am exposed to some laws I know nothing about before now. I am a woman whose voice must be heard. I can not be silenced and ignored."

It was an intense & powerful week. Alongside the lovely comments & sense that we had empowered community members with important information, there were also distressing stories of the racism some of our participants experience daily, often in front of their children, leaving them frightened & anxious.

In light of this, it was brilliant to see the will of the police & community organisations in Hartlepool to come together & create a more inclusive town.

31/03/2026

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Reflecting on our fab Chris Drinkwater award via & Child Health & Wellbeing Network, I want to take a moment to build a picture of how a programme like this is built over time, in multiple iterations, in response to feedback, incorporating the effort of so many.

🐣 Delivering our Demystifying Domestic Abuse Workplace Learning in a school, we observed anxiety about triggering young people who might be affected & realised the need to capture "the child's view!"

🐤 Working with Creative Producer .Turner_21 Writer Illustrator & developed Sometimes it Hurts (in 2020!) to capture young people's tricky experiences & adult responses to this. Watch - https://youtu.be/0_egKFkh7dg?si=6UeTBQNUOcL753zr

🐤 We trialed the stories with young people at & & a group of professionals to gage responses & consider the next steps of development.

🐥 This led to the Rabbits in Headlights project, where .R.88 & came on board to develop activities around the stories to enable teachers to use them to open conversation with young people they realised were affected.

🐥 Several schools supported this development, with their young people testing activities, commissioning further illustrations & guiding the development of a website designed to house the stories - https://sometimesithurts.org.uk/

🐥 Partner schools tested the activities, fed back on what they needed to support their capacity to deliver them; whilst we developed & tested CPD to provide background understanding of the issue & build familiarity with the stories & activities we had designed.

🐦 In the latest stage has joined to shape & test Sometimes it Hurts KS2 schemes of work with additional schools & youth groups, in a complex programme managed by

So you can see why it is so wonderful to be recognised at this point - so much effort from so many has gone in to developing it over quite a number of years!

To everyone who has been involved in any way - thank you 🥰

27/03/2026

🎉We’re absolutely delighted to announce that Sometimes it Hurts has won the Chris Drinkwater Award for Creative Health in Primary Schools 25-26.🎉

Sometimes it Hurts uses fictionalised stories and creative activities to enable teachers and children to engage in sensitive, age-appropriate conversations about domestic abuse and neglect leading to increased emotional literacy, regulation and expression and improved access to support.

Thank you to the children, artists, teachers, schools, youth groups and funders who have made this possible. A particular thanks to Joanne Murray from Copeland Road Primary School in West Auckland for partnering with us in the award application.

Thank you to North East Museums and the North East and North Cumbria Child Health and Wellbeing Network for selecting us for this award.

Sometimes it Hurts has been funded by Arts Council England , The National Lottery Community Fund , Gaunless Gateway, Stanley Area Action Partnership, Bishop Auckland and Shildon Area Action Partnership, Great Aycliffe and Middridge Area Action Partnership, Point North, Durham University , Paul Hamlyn Foundationn Foundation, North East Combined Authority , Core 20 Plus, and Barbour.

24/03/2026

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Sometimes I fall down a comms black hole where I completely lose the head space for connecting with the world in this digital arena.

Beyond posting about our board recruitment, I'm conscious of having fallen silent since our fabulous A is for Amy big screen premiere.

In reality, that's largely because so much of my comms energy is taken up at the moment with in-person conversations and writing content for other arenas.

So I thought I'd do a little summary of all the things I'm up to, to give a flavour of what's going on behind-the-scenes at Changing Relations!

In the last couple of weeks, I've been -

💥 drafting funding proposals

💥 writing copy for our new website (which is oh so nearly ready to share with you all)

💥 reviewing the look of the pages as my colleague enters the content

💥 talking to potential partners for our Don't Look Away project

💥 lining up interviews for our Navigating Vulnerability project

💥 working with our designer to prepare posters for an academic conference we're participating in

💥 talking to team members and sector peers about business strategy

💥 preparing resources for workshop delivery we're leading for a partner organisation

💥 checking in with our students about their work placement module progress

💥 planning an engagement event with an Associate Artist

💥 conducting a site visit to work out the details of an artistic residency

💥 talking to various potential collaborators across the culture, youth and higher education sectors

That's a lot of conversations!!!

No wonder I ran out of social media steam 😊

Image credit

16/03/2026

💥Board Recruitment Alert💥

It's exciting times at Changing Relations! We're looking to begin transitioning to charitable status in the next year and are looking for 2-4 new board members who would be happy ultimately to become trustees.

We've worked really hard at outlining who we are, how we work and the kinds of values and competencies we're looking for to expand our board in readiness for the next stage in our development.

And we'd love to hear from you if you are interested - or for you to share this with anyone you think would be a good fit.

✨ Please take a look at the board recruitment document on our website - https://changingrelations.co.uk/board-recruitment-2026/

✨ You are welcome to book an informal call with our MD Lisa if you'd like to understand more before putting in an application. Email to check availability for this on lisa@changingrelations.co.uk.

✨ The deadline for applications is midnight on Monday 4th May. In a written application, please tell us why you are interested in joining our Board, and outline the key skills, understanding, and experience you could bring to our organisation in no more than 600 words. At this stage, we’re interested in learning more about you and your wider knowledge and experience - we’ll dive deeper into ways of working at interview stage. Send to lisa@changingrelations.co.uk.

✨ Our existing Board of Directors will review all written applications and confirm whether you have been invited to our recruitment event by the end of the day on Friday 15th May.

✨ We will hold an invite-only recruitment event on Friday 19th June at . This will run 11am–3pm, with lunch provided, including an informal gathering as well as an individual interview.

💥We can't wait to hear from you!💥

Image credit .thomas_

11/03/2026

It was a theatrical weekend for Kate, our Artistic Director, and her daughter with our screening of A is for Amy on Saturday night followed by going north of the Tyne to see Workie Ticket Theatre's production of Deeds, Words and Danger. It was really enjoyable and a reminder of the amazing women that our world is built on. It was also lush to catch up with Ashlea Sanderson who directed it and who has also been working on the A is for Amy project with us. We're super lucky to have her.

06/03/2026

Thanks so much to for featuring us on BBC Tees to speak about tomorrow's screening of A is for Amy at .

The young people from Creative Youth Opportunities were absolutely fantastic in explaining their understanding of the issue of teenage relationship abuse and we were so chuffed to hear lovely Val from one of our partner schools - King James I Academy in Bishop Auckland - share how A is for Amy has resulted in young people coming forward to make disclosures, meaning that staff can then act to put support in place.

You can have a little listen here - https://changingrelations.co.uk/a-is-for-amy-on-the-radio/

And if this tempts you to grab some last minute tickets, you can book them here - https://tickets.redhillsdurham.org/event/a-is-for-amy-film-premiere-and-qa/

04/03/2026

Really really inspiring today to be at the North East Anti-Racism Coalition event at Durham Town Hall, encouraging us to get behind the vision of a North East where diversity is celebrated and everyone feels safe and valued.

How lush for the event to begin with spoken word! Powerful, stirring and a perfect distillation and articulation of the key issues. We particularly loved the line "Strength is creating spaces where no-one has to shrink to survive." Thank you 👏

We heard from an excellent panel of speakers from a fantastic range of sectors - law, banking, utilities, voluntary sector - who talked about the need for inclusion to be the norm and flagged that you can't get diversity without inclusion - we need to proactively shift the privilege, ensuring that people from diverse backgrounds know that they would be welcomed in a workplace and that customers and clients of services feel represented in the staff they interface with, empowering them to engage.

We were deeply impressed by the radical empathy expressed by Daniel Nyandiya in a bid to meet people where they are, including engaging those whose behaviours appear to suggest racial exclusion with open questions, for instance around why they might have chosen to put up flags and what message that might be sending to different communities resident in the given area.

And we really appreciated Mohammed Roziur Rahman's tips on how we bring policies relating to the Equality Act to life in our organisations, including making small adjustments that significantly increase the confidence of staff members of different faiths to be themselves and a proactive effort to start conversations and create an environment where people feel comfortable speaking about who they are and what they need.

So what next?

The coalition have launched a campaign you can sign up to, to signal an active will to work against racism in our systems and culture - https://northeastantiracism.org.uk/become-the-bridge/

In the words of Nitin Shukla - inspired by the recent Holi festivities - "Let's colour our world not with prejudice and fear, but with courage, kindness and connection."

03/03/2026

Bit of a site visit to this morning to get ourselves all organised for our screening this Saturday!

Our Visual Arts and Culture students .vannah6412 and were absolutely loving the beautiful venue with individual wooden seats😊

And the lovely was calm and reassuring talking us through logistics and technicalities with her snazzy tablet 🤩

It's starting to feel exciting!!!

Have you got your tickets?!?!?

https://tickets.redhillsdurham.org/event/a-is-for-amy-film-premiere-and-qa/

02/03/2026

There will be much talk about how to make the world a better place for women this week as we approach International Women’s Day.

I rather like Jeanette Winterson’s pithy two liner of a way to do this.

27/02/2026

Just over a week to go until our A is for Amy film premiere...

Have you got your tickets yet?!

We're looking forward to seeing you there!!

https://tickets.redhillsdurham.org/event/a-is-for-amy-film-premiere-and-qa/

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 sexting risks, in an accessible way, giving a voice to those people who have been affected and generating public and professional understanding.