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 video gives a summary of the series.