Bullseye: Natalie Aiming for Communication, Collaboration, and Confidence with DART
Meet Natalie
She rushes along the pavement, clasping the small, squirming hands of her young children behind her as the group hurries to school. Across her body a pair of bookbags, lunchboxes, and a plastic bag containing a papier-mâché class project have been slung. They approach the My Sisters’ House building, a usual stop on their route, and hover by the front door. Today, like most others, she reads from the array of posters in the window.
‘I just knew I’d end up being involved somehow,’ Natalie, the NSPCC DART (Domestic Abuse Recovering Together) programme coordinator at My Sisters’ House, reflects on her school run stop-offs at the centre.
After passing by My Sisters’ House’s window so many times, the poster that gave Natalie that final push to join the team was an advertisement for the job of DART facilitator.
Two years later and Natalie now leads the DART team. As the programme coordinator, Natalie sorts referrals, sources venues, and organises the DART courses.
Seeking to ‘Break the stigma and silence around domestic abuse,’ as Natalie comments, DART supports clients through a series of workshops over ten weeks.
‘Our programme is quite unique,’ Natalie informs me. ‘We’re the only course that works with mothers and children together.’
The reason behind this being a study at Warwick University which showed children respond better to support when their mothers are present. Natalie agrees, ‘When mothers open up, their children are also able to.’
Currently each intensive course accommodates six mothers and six children in small, safe groups. ‘Children have often seen and heard more than mothers realise,’ Natalie admits.
Each session runs for two hours, with one hour spent in a large group looking at varying themes, such as what is domestic abuse and how to access help, and the other with the mothers and children divided. ‘One time we had the parents create acrostic poems using the children’s names,’ Natalie recalls. ‘The kids loved it! They loved that their mothers had made something for them.’
The tenth session, as Natalie nicknames, is the ‘Fabulous finish.’ In this last gathering, the mothers and children showcase the work they’ve produced throughout the ten weeks to see and appreciate their journeys.
So far Natalie’s coordinated and ran nine DART courses with another two set to begin in September. She’s even debating starting evening courses for the mothers who are unable to attend in DART’s usual term time.
‘I just feel so passionate about it,’ Natalie confesses. ‘It’s such a fantastic course, and the results are truly amazing.’
She also expresses praise for My Sisters’ House, ‘I think it’s fabulous. We do an amazing job for vulnerable women who need our help. It’s all about empowerment and helping them achieve their goals. I’m just so thrilled to be a part of the team, it’s so fulfilling.’
After witnessing the results of the DART programme over the past two years, Natalie has found that not only do the mothers feel more confident, more open, and that they’ve managed to overcome their traumas, but that their once strained relationships with their children are stronger.
As I’m sure Natalie appreciates, though sometimes difficult, a mother’s relationship with her child is something rather special. Asides from occasional tantrums, bedtime battles, and the every day school run charade that can make you question it all, the love and support shared between mothers and their children is unrivaled. That’s why the best aim after experiencing domestic abuse, as DART preaches, is recovering together.
