We are an arts education and training company that provokes thinking around gender equality, gender
03/07/2026
Random cheerful share for a Friday...
When you attend a research planning meeting in a Primary School and Thor knocks at the door to show off his hammer...
Obvs 🤷♀️
Thank you for the entertainment value Copeland Road Primary School !
01/07/2026
Little reminder to book your place for one of our upcoming Navigating Vulnerability workshops folks.
These have been designed around a rich set of interviews and illustrations exploring:
🩵 the kinds of contexts, tasks and roles that involve holding an emotional load
🩵 the implications of this kind of work particularly where you might additionally hold your own challenging lived experiences
🩵 the value of this lived experience
🩵 boundary-setting to protect our wellbeing
🩵 the coping strategies, processing frameworks and support structures that help us to handle this kind of work
In the words of one of our lovely interviewees -
“I think just making space for these kinds of conversations in and of itself is really helpful and sort of healing, just being asked to participate in something like this, where it's being acknowledged. Just taking the time and space to actually ask some of these questions, it gives me as a practitioner time and space to reflect and think about the impact that it does have on me.”
Would this space be helpful for you in terms of the work you are doing as a practitioner?
Or from the point of view of thinking about how you might enhance the way in which you support the practitioners on your teams?
📆 Practitioner-oriented workshop - 12.30-2.30pm Wed 15 July
BOOK - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1989317004712
📆 Manager-oriented workshop - 12.30-2.30pm Thu 16 July
BOOK - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1989317549341
Both taking place in Confluence Building.
Please share with anyone you think this could be useful for 🙏
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Image credit
(links in bio)
26/06/2026
Bit of Friday loveliness - a blog by our lush work placement student - A Day in the Life Of !
"My placement began the day before a conference. I knew you can’t show up & everything be magically organised (as much as we might like it to be that way!) but I didn't realise just how much goes into planning & creating displays.
I spent the day creating a display board, which took several hours. If I hadn't been there, that would have to be done by Lisa. As I was there, she focused her time preparing for a project with but she made time to help me & find resources I needed.
It became obvious through the week not only the work she did for herself, but also the work she did to help others.
On Tuesday we had a VERY early start. We got to the conference, set up, talked to people about Changing Relations, looked at what other stalls were doing, listened to some of the talks. Lisa planned where everything was going to go, made sure it went there, improving our stall based off what she was learning as she went. She answered questions & gave explanations & leaflets.
We packed up & then… IT WASN'T OVER! There was a theatre company who it was possible to do a project with so we went to one of their productions. She saw I was tired & let me go home to rest but she went to the pre-production event.
On Wednesday, we were interviewing people for a future project. We went to Sunderland, then Newcastle - wherever it was most convenient for the people we were interviewing. Lisa asked questions, recorded them & allowed me to watch (having checked with those she interviewed it was alright) giving me a sense of how other roles like intimacy coordinator work.
On Thursday & Friday, Lisa copied up the transcripts & set me the tasks of copying up my notes from the conference & writing this beautiful blog!
My week has shown the preparation needed & just how much work Lisa does not only for projects but also to ensure everyone else can work to the best of their ability, in an environment they feel comfortable in, not only looking after herself, but everyone in the organisation. It is a job she does with care & thought."
Look what our fabulous student intern .vannah6412 has created for us!!!
Absolutely delighted with this interview reel drawn from conversations with our:
🤩 gorgeous A is for Amy cast
🤩 fabulous co-directors
🤩 incredible young people who absolutely threw themselves into the codesign of the set and costumes for the film - Liv and Freyja from
🤩 super supportive education partners - Claire Linfoot from Laurel Avenue Community Centre and Val Bainbridge from
🤩 lovely audience member Nomusa from
It really builds a picture of the value of our toxic teen relationship-themed film and the messages that young people will take from it.
Take a look - https://youtu.be/BQ0aOgW-fGw
Thanks so much for being prepared to be interviewed everyone, to for wielding the 🎤 and to for hosting the premiere where the interviews largely took place 🤩
19/06/2026
Such a lush session at the other week supported by our fab curator .
It was a real pleasure to work with committed staff and students from the college to help them plan their HB🩵 festival for the next academic year.
Here you can see us going through our art-filled newspaper What's All the Fuss About to select images for inclusion in an exhibition that we will be installing in college in the Autumn. The group were really clear about the messages they wanted to promote and it was wonderful for us to have an opportunity to bring this gorgeous content back to life.
This content was originally commissioned by the Student Social Action Group working on our Let's Talk About S*x project.
Young people from and highlighted what had been missing in their school S*x Education and the problematic sexual attitudes and behaviours they wanted to challenge.
They chose artists .hope and Beka Haytch (https://bekahaytch.uk) to capture what they wanted to share with their peers.
You can read about the original project on our website (where you can also find a link to the digital exhibition featuring the artworks) -
https://changingrelations.co.uk/how-we-help/projects/lets-talk-about-sex/
Thank you very much for inviting us back!
17/06/2026
Getting excited to meet the fab candidates who applied to join our board at Redhills Durham this Friday.
They'll be browsing our resources, sharing a cuppa with & as we get to know each other.
Can't wait to be able to say who will be coming on board (which will, needless to say, be announced through the medium of illustration!)!
This is a really important moment for us as we build up our board ready to start the journey from CIC to CIO. Cross your fingers for us folks!
With thanks to for these lovely images from our Us Too project which aimed to highlight the diversity of people affected by domestic abuse.
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK ONTO OUR INFORMATION SESSION ABOUT SHARING A IS FOR AMY WITH YOUR YOUNG PEOPLE
Changing Relations is recruiting schools to take part in our A is for Amy education programme which addresses young people’s experiences of domestic abuse.
A is for Amy is a film which tells the story of Amy who experiences domestic abuse at the hands of her boyfriend and how, with the support of friends, trusted adults and external services, she escapes the abuse.
The film is used as the basis of an education programme which uses creative stimuli and activities to help young people:
⭐Understand what healthy and unhealthy relationships might look like
⭐Recognise different forms of abuse and neglect
⭐Understand that abusing someone is a choice and that other choices can be made
⭐Understand the importance of positive friendships
⭐Understand where and how they can access help
A is for Amy was coproduced with young people and, although fictional, is based on young people's experiences and observations.
The programme that sits beside it was developed with young people, teachers, school pastoral workers and youth workers.
The programme is appropriate for young people in school years 9-13 and is suitable for delivery in a variety of different formats (e.g. full class, small groups and drop down days).
It is designed for school staff/youth workers to be able to deliver in house.
Training for teachers/pastoral teams/youth workers and access to all programme resources will be provided free of charge to participating schools in academic year 2026-27.
Changing Relations will be holding online information sessions for interested schools on Wednesday 17-06-26 at 4pm
To attend the information session and/or find out more about the programmes/how to participate please contact:
[email protected]
The A is for Amy programme is generously supported by funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Arts Council England, NECA, NHS, National Lottery Community Fund, BAM Construction Ltd, Barbour and Gaunless Gateway.
05/06/2026
We've always been conscious that working with challenging themes such as domestic abuse & sexual consent involves carrying a heavy emotional load for practitioners, particularly where this results in participant disclosures & where practitioners are navigating the weight of their own difficult lived experience.
It's why our Artistic Director@kategormanjewel is so passionate about bringing a care-based practice to our project management.
But over time, we have observed - across the various sectors we engage in - that the practice of recognising & consciously working to support those whose roles involve carrying an emotional load, is patchy.
We've seen some amazing practice.
We're also conscious of many gaps, of an inconsistency in funders recognising this aspect of the work they are supporting, of culture sector freelancers falling through the cracks & left to manage the load of others once a project has ended, of those at the top of organisations carrying a huge weight of the vulnerability passed up the tree from participant to practitioner to manager & not necessarily having clear pathways to ensure they too are fine.
So we decided to tackle it head on.
Over the last month, we have been interviewing people in a range of roles from a range of sectors to understand what it's like to carry emotional load in the work that you do & what personal coping strategies, frameworks & organisational structures & approaches enable them to keep on keeping on.
What we have gathered will have great value for practitioners navigating vulnerability on the frontline as well as those in management roles & we have planned 2 training sessions to pilot this content:
📆 Wednesday 15th July, 12.30-2.30pm for PRACTITIONERS
📆 Thursday 16th July, 12.30-2.30pm for MANAGERS
Keep your eyes peeled for booking links!
We're super grateful to for supporting this new development under our core theme of Inclusive Practice.
And to our lovely illustrator for throwing together this work-in-progress image before they dive into the interview content to visually represent the key emerging themes.
03/06/2026
Lush workshop yesterday working with 's beautiful imagery around the theme of creating supportive workplace environments for staff who are navigating invisible disabilities.
Our lovely participants told us the session was "engaging, empowering, interesting, creative, accessible, open, thought-provoking, informative, safe, fun."
The booklet we worked so hard to create with support from support was really valued as a tool in its combination of testimony from those with lived experience of disability, together with impactful artwork visually representing the key themes that had emerged from the interviews we undertook.
If you would be interested in copies of the booklet for your workplace - or to support your own reflections on inclusive practice - or you would be interested in booking the workshop we have devised to give space for these valuable reflections - get in touch - [email protected]