It’s Your Choice works with young people on any issue that is concerning them including homelessness and housing, drug and alcohol misuse, and mental health issues.

From time to time we also run workshops, group sessions and awareness evenings on other issues that we feel are particularly relevant to our young people, but that we may not always offer regular sessions for.

In light of this we recently held a Domestic Abuse Awareness Evening which was attended by four young women who we work with on a regular basis.

Put on by IYC Youth Advisers, Kat and Jo, the evening was based on The Freedom Programme and was designed to take a closer look at domestic abuse and explore what makes a healthy relationship.

Some of the discussion topics included the early warning signs of domestic abuse, behaviours that are acceptable and unacceptable in relationships, and the practical steps that can be taken to leave an abusive relationship.

We were thrilled to have some fantastic feedback from the participants and hope to be able to put on more of these sessions in the future.

Here are just some of the comments from the young women who took part:

“The session taught me a lot about how we should be treated as a partner. I feel it has made me realise I need a serious think about what I want for me and my future.”

“[The session taught me that] … instead of us girls thinking that it is us doing stuff wrong all the time and feeling that we aren’t good enough, that isn’t actually the case at all.”

“I really enjoyed the sessions as they made it fun. It’s good to be able to talk to them about relationship problems.”