About the original book

The book was created to give a voice to young people and a language to themes that are difficult and sensitive to approach, such as neglect, divorce, domestic abuse and unhealthy, controlling behaviours, both within families and within young people’s own romantic relationships. The content aspires to strengthen the capacity for both adults and young people to identify what is healthy and unhealthy in relationships of all kinds, develop empathy for others, and seek and offer better ongoing support for those affected by tricky things at home.

The six illustrated short stories reflect a diverse range of young people who are different ages, races, sexualities, and genders. The one thing they have in common, is that they are all experiencing something at home that hurts them. This is particularly pertinent both post-pandemic and in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, as research shows that there was a significant increase in domestic abuse related offences during the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns, with an increase in child neglect and abuse, and many suffering due to financial strains and isolation.

We delivered what was originally called The Child’s View Project together with our Creative Associate Michelle Harland, CEO of Creative Youth Opportunities and writer Bridget Hamilton. The project need was informed by feedback from teachers and adults who work with young people, who had engaged with our two other domestic abuse resources, Make Do And Mend and Us Too, and told us they needed more to support young people with their own experiences of domestic abuse.

Together, Michelle and Bridget led a programme of weekly workshops with groups of young people, inviting discussion around ideas of family, relationships, hurt, trust and getting support, through a range of participatory discussions and creative activities. These were shaped by physical and digital scrapbooking to collect and log thoughts and ideas which would help our illustrator and animator create a visual landscape for the resulting Sometimes it Hurts book and animation.

Alongside these activities, our Artistic Director at the time, Pollyanna Turner, managed a creative team, including illustrator Tamsin Rees, and animator Sheryl Jenkins, who linked with the group to help build a relationship of trust, share ideas and creative skills, and foster an environment of co-production. A project steering group completed the team with individuals from a range of backgrounds, including safeguarding, education, local councillors, together with professionals and individuals who publicly advocate domestic abuse awareness-raising, including from national domestic abuse charity, SafeLives, as well as the founders of COCOAwareness, Luke and Ryan Hart, who kindly wrote the foreword to the book.

This group ensured that the young people we were working with were supported appropriately and that our content would provide a platform to give voice to others whose own stories may resonate.

The original book has now been replaced by a set of six individual books, each featuring one of the stories hosted on this website. If you would like to order a set of the six books in hard copy, please visit our online shop.