Swindon charity teaching children about unhealthy relationships
It's hoped young people will be more confident in speaking out about abuse
A domestic abuse charity in Swindon has told Greatest Hits Radio how it is working with schools to support children affected by abuse.
Swindon Domestic Abuse Support Service (SDASS) has received funding from Julia and Hans Rausing allowing them create an innovative method of supporting children by educating them about healthy relationships.
Charlotte Gibbon from SDASS told us it's essential children given the right information about healthy relationships and what is and isn't acceptable from an early age.
"From young ages, children understand about kindness and what's not so kind," Charlotte said.
She added that children are growing up in a world where it's become normalised to have 24/7 access to other through social media.
Charlotte said: "We want to be able to get in there and talk to them about actually when it doesn't feel comfortable that there's certain limits in terms of what constitutes healthy behaviour and what doesn't?"
And it's not all about 'grown up' relationships, as SDASS want to give the youngest children the ability to protect themselves in the future.
"It's also about family relationships and friendships and being able to recognise that that sometimes when things don't feel OK, they're probably not OK," Charlotte told us.
She added: "It's taking all of those tools to be able to go forward into the future and be able to keep themselves safe."
Charlotte told us the schools they're working with have welcomed the opportunity for young people to access support, in the hope that children and young people will be able to thrive at school as a result.
She also said that making young people aware of what a healthy relationship looks like will give them more confidence to reach out for help if they're ever in an abusive situation.
"We want our young people to feel comfortable. We want them to feel safe," she said.
We want them to, to feel that they're able to reach out because domestic abuse, is a very, very private thing. We want to get it on everybody's radar and we want to make it everybody's business," Charlotte added.
And by normalising talking about domestic abuse, the aim is to give young people security in the knowledge that if they ever need help, they will be listened to and will be believed.