Information for students

Research Project

Talking To My Mum:

You've got to learn to talk to your children. They are young people but they fully understand. An important aspect of the research is that it works to cover the divide between women and children's services and seeks to address the relationship between mothers and their children. That's what I've learnt from Jamie.
(Jill, Jamie's Mum)

CTWR set up the research project Talking to my Mum with the Centre for the Study of Safety and Wellbeing at the University of Warwick, which is well known for its work on domestic violence. The project sought to develop practical methods for dealing with the communication gaps which domestic violence frequently creates between women and their children and to cover the divide between women and children's services. Grant aid was supplied by the Big Lottery Fund.

Talking to my Mum aimed to develop activities to help children talk openly with their mothers about their feelings, about safety and risk-taking and about the effects of the abuse so that they could begin to rebuild their lives together.

Few women know how to cope with the experience of domestic violence let alone help their children deal with living in a violent household. As a result, and emotionally and physically exhausted by what they are experiencing, women often come to feel that their best way of both coping themselves and of protecting their children is to say nothing about the violence they are suffering. This can have adverse effects on them, their children and the relationship between them.

Dissemination events for Talking to My Mum:

1 November 2005. The impact of domestic violence in the relationship between mothers and their children: safeguarding is everybody's business. Children and Domestic Abuse Conference, Manchester.

15 February 2006. Impact of domestic violence on the relationship between mothers and their children. Liverpool.

July 2006. Talking to My Mum: two workshops at Women's Aid National Conference, Leicester.

20-22 September 2006. Developing communication between mothers and their children in the aftermath of domestic violence. CAHRV, European Project, Budapest.

10 October 2006. Developing communication between mothers and their children in the aftermath of domestic violence. Presentation and workshops, NSPCC Conference, Leicester.

31 October 2006. Developing work to support communication between mothers and their children in the aftermath of domestic violence. Greater London Domestic Violence Project, London.

For further information about the research and date of publication, availability and price of the manuals, see the Centre for the Study of Safety & Wellbeing (SWELL) website

The school secretary who manages the website is Sylvia Moore sylvia.moore@warwick.ac.uk

Or e-mail: Dr Cathy Humphreys cathy.humphreys@warwick.ac.uk or Dr Ravi Thiara at R.K.Thiara@warwick.ac.uk

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