Start Today Again - Fathers healing relationships after family violence

Introduction

Start Today Again is a ‘toolkit’ for use by presenters and trainers who intend to assist men and men’s groups understand the impact of family violence on children, and understand some ways in which changes in parenting relationships can be made. It has been written in the belief that males, all too often part of the problem of family violence, can also become part of the solution, both as bystanders understanding the impacts of family violence on children (see detailed discussion in Pease, 2008), and as men who decide that it is better to exchange attempts to control their family through any form of violence for attempts to build better and more supportive relationships with their children and partners. This toolkit presents the impact of family violence on children, and includes ways in which men can begin to improve their relationship and ameliorate the effects of their violence.

The toolkit draws on insights from contemporary domestic violence research including what is now known about the impacts of witnessing family violence on the developing brain of children (see Section III of this manual). It specifically focuses on the intergenerational nature of much family violence (Woodhead, 2015). The toolkit is designed for multiple uses and for multiple audiences, including community groups, and for sessions varying from ninety minute presentations, to one and two day facilitator training workshops to a two hour per week, nine to eleven week psychoeducational course (see Section II). The materials provided in this ‘toolkit’ are intended to be used flexibly, in accordance with the needs and interests of the audiences to whom it is being presented. Section II provides guidance as to which materials might be used with which audiences. There is both a structured, didactic (that is, lecture and information‑based presentation style) and an experiential manner of presenting this material both of which are also described in Section II, and designed to fit the needs of the presenter and their audience.