Do The Right Thing

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND MEN: evaluation report

Leeds 9 May 2008

Feedback from our national conferences - Home Truths (2006) and Home Truths 2 (2007) - included requests for more (or any) sessions on men. We had been guilty of perhaps only seeing men as perpetrators - and had thus only put on one session on a perpetrator programme.

Here are the average ratings by delegates who scored each section on a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being "excellent" and 1 being "poor"). We always look to score at least 4.0 - anything lower is a disappointment to us. This seminar did not disappoint us.

Responses were received from all 15 delegates

1 How would you rate the seminar overall?	4.8
2 How would you rate the venue?	4.6
3 How would you rate the administration before the conference?	4.5
4 How would you rate how things were organised on the day?	4.7
5 How would you rate Paul Wolf-Light's session on male perpetrators?	4.8
6 How would you rate Mark Coulter's session on male victims?	4.7
7 How would you rate Melvin Hartley's session on male-to-male violence?	4.7
8 How would you rate the lunch?	4.4

Comments: the good stuff

"This was a genuinely excellent event - informative and thought-provoking. Thank you"

"Really enjoyed the day. Thank you"

"I felt this day opened up a lot of questions about my own personal work practice. I really enjoyed the day"

"I really found it informative. It gave me various ideas of how I could incorporate my learning into practice."

"Very good. I liked the personal feel of the openness of questions that can be asked during the sessions. Very informative - has made me realise different ways of thinking."

"Content was very good especially as I didn't know much about this area. Well organised and informative."

"Really good presentations. Thought-provoking, well-paced, in-depth and appropriate to a wide ranging audience. More than met my expectations."

"Probably one of the most interesting events I have ever attended. This event has opened a great interest of learning more and putting my learning into practice."

"This is the second event I've been to organised by Do The Right Thing. Once again I was surprised and educated. Well worth the distance travelled. Look forward to future events."

We say: For us, the last two comments are what we are all about. You can't beat getting it right. Thank you. One delegate said that in the future from us he'd like to see "more diverse events that surprise each time". That could be our company's tagline, that!

Do The Right Thing
Diverse Events that Surprise Each Time

Comments: the not-so-good stuff

Er, there werren't any. Again. Which was nice.

Comments: the suggestions: content

Would have been good for people to introduce themselves to get flavour of agencies in the group

We say: Yes, good idea. Given the small numbers (between 15-30) at the seminars - a quick whizz around everybody would make sense - and not take up too much time.

Would have liked more practical information on the aspects of running a LGBT or perpetrator programme

We say: Yes, good idea again. In future events we will look to have a session on "starting your own programme" or something along those lines.

Would have liked a different perspective to Paul Wolf-Light's with regard to perpetrator programme

I would have liked to know more about group-work with We say: Certainly this is something we can look at. Perhaps the perspective of court-mandated programmes as opposed to the voluntary community programme might be useful. Indeed the debate about which way is better might make for informative listening.

A spotlight on research/evaluation of what is out there

We say: If we can find it - we'll present it!

I would have liked to do introductions at the start of the day and a chance to talk to others about their work. I didn't find it easy to contribute to the questions in a full group.

We say: Agreed. Networking is a crucial part of our events - although this tends to happen in breaks and over lunch. Perhaps this could be formalised more by having smaller workshops - even when our overall numbers are kept low.

Very brief introduction around table of other delegates

We say: Okay, okay! We get the picture!

Young perpetrators and the link to their childhood (how did intervention in childhood help/not help?)

We say: Absolutely.

Comments: the suggestions: the venue

We used Fieldhead Conference Centre - in Thorner, north of Leeds.

The venue was very nice but not accessible without a car. Return taxis to Leeds station cost me nearly £30.

Venue very easy to find and a bonus having parking.

We say: This is the balance we struggle with. Trying to find different and attractive(and cost-effective) places to hold events while making sure that they are accessible to public transport. We agree that here you definitely need a car. So perhaps we need to find another venue.

Map (giving directions to venue) totally useless for us girls without any knowledge of geography or simple things such as map reading.

We say: Nothing like a bit of self-generated gender stereotyping! We sort of rely on the venu eto come up with the goods as far as directions and maps are concerned - and often just download the information from their websites. But if we use the venue again we will consider an alternative map!