Break4Change - support for families with children who abuse

Child to parent violence and abuse is when a parent lives in fear of their child and changes their behaviour in order to avoid conflict or contain and minimise the violence or abuse.

The child's abuse can include behaviours such as hitting, name-calling, making threats, stealing money and damaging possessions in the home.

Our 10-week Break4Change programme offers support to families where a young person aged 11-16 is violent or abusive towards their parent or carer.

About the Break4Change programme

Our Break4Change programme focuses on non-violence and developing mutual respect between family members.

It uses 3 main approaches to help young people address their behaviour and make positive changes:

  1. Young person's group - we provide educational and therapeutic sessions together with a creative aspect so that each young person is able to revisit and process what they learn in the session.
  2. Parent's group - we provide supportive discussions with parents to understand the scale of the abuse and the effects it's had on the family. There's also a chance to share experience and advice with other parents.
  3. Filming aspect - we enable the young person and their parents to hear, often for the first time, how the young person views themselves.

How to join the Break4Change programme

If you’re interested in accessing the programme or would like more information, contact us by:

Help and support from other organisations

If you're in immediate danger, please call 999.

The police are the most appropriate agency to support you when life is in danger, and they are often very understanding of issues around child and adolescent abuse.

There are also many organisations across the UK offering advice, specialist services and more to help support you and your family. Support for victims and survivors of domestic abuse