At Thrive Women’s Aid, prevention and education plays a huge role in our services.
Our new RESPECT programme is for families where children or young people aged between 8 and 18 are abusive or violent towards the people close to them, particularly their parents or carers. This abuse may be physical, verbal, financial, coercive or emotional and may include behaviour like hitting, making threats or causing damage in the home. Alongside RYPP we will also provide holistic, wraparound support for young people for example providing support with health, housing, education as well as family relationships.
The RYPP is targeted at reducing risk factors associated with later offending/aggressive behaviour such as:
- Early conduct disorder
- Poor attachment
- Poor academic attainment / school engagement
- Ineffective / permissive parenting
- Low empathy
- High entitlement
- Poor conflict resolution skills
- Poor emotional regulation
- Risk taking behaviours
When children and young people are referred into our services, our staff delivering the programme aim to:
- Reduce verbal aggression and violence in close relationships
- Improve emotional well-being (coping with anxiety, anger, depression, emotional self-regulation)
- Improve family communication and relationships
- Build parenting confidence and skills
- Increase the young person’s insight to their own behaviour.
These outcomes will be achieved through the following:
- Invitational and strength- based approaches
- Neuroscience and self-soothing
- Attachment theory
- Restorative justice
- Conflict resolution
RYPP Structure:
The RYPP has a structured approach and is designed to be replicated with some local adaption but retaining a degree of model fidelity. The RYPP is delivered over 3-6 months via one or two face to face sessions per week – a total of 19 sessions (9 with the young person, 7 with the parent, two with the family). There are 2 preparatory sessions with parents and the young person, this helps to build a relationship and assesses risk and programme suitability.
Thereafter, there are weekly or fortnightly structured sessions with the parent and monthly family sessions aimed at making and reviewing family agreements and safety plans. The work with the young person consists of a series of structured weekly sessions run individually or in groups covering:
- Insight into violence/abuse and its effects
- Emotional regulation & awareness
- Solution focused work / goal setting
- Cognitive behavioural work
- Empathy building
- Conflict resolution
The programme can also be delivered via groupwork with parents and young people if appropriate. If the RYPP is working with families with multiple needs, additional time or sessions may be needed to reflect these additional challenges.
For referrals, please complete our CYP External Referral Form and send back to referrals@thrivewa.org.uk password protected, for assessment.