Power Up/Power
Down was an exciting partnership project between Scottish Women’s Aid and
the Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland.
In 2016, 27 children and
young people aged between 6 and 17 years old took part in a participatory
project, Power Up/Power Down, supported by Glasgow Women’s Aid, Shakti Women’s
Aid and East Dunbartonshire Women’s Aid. Throughout a series of sessions, they
explored themes of power, children’s rights, making their voices heard in
court, and how to improve the experience and outcomes for children affected by
domestic abuse in family court actions relating to contact decisions.
Children and young people
taking part were given an illustrated story about two children with experience
of domestic abuse going through the family court system, based on real-life
examples collected by Scottish Women’s Aid. Through an exploration
of the story in relation to children’s rights and concepts of power, the
children and young people ‘rewrote’ the story to improve the outcomes for the
children in it.
The resulting new story
highlights key areas for positive change and identifies recommendations for
making the system better for children and young people. These recommendations
have been used to directly inform our policy and influencing work around
court-ordered contact.
The stories of Power Up/Power Down, along with the background of
the project, have also been compiled into a series of five videos. This is the fourth
video of the series.