Although domestic violence projects normally focus on young women, The Relationships Centre in Warrington has attracted funding from Comic Relief to run a scheme for 13- to 19-year-old young men. It has been allocated 98,000 over three years, and is putting in an extra 10 per cent of this itself.
Pam Arnold, director at the centre, which focuses on building positive relationships, said: "Often there is nothing out there to help young men who are marginalised and this is not healthy."
The What's Up project is being promoted through cartoon images. It hopes to address the high levels of depression and suicide among young men who have encountered domestic violence, through one-to-one counselling and group workshops. Many of the young men will have either witnessed domestic violence or be responsible for it.
Arnold added that she does not believe that young men who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence will go on to be perpetrators, saying: "Huge numbers of females who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence don't go on to perpetrate it."
