Did you experience family separation or family courts as a child? Can you help us make a short video of your experiences?
Parental Alienation Awareness Day is an annual event which aims to raise awareness, educate and campaign against this widespread and pernicious form of child abuse - the undermining of a child's loving relationship with a parent and wider family. This event is held on the 25th April each year and is an opportunity to unite, connect and share experiences with others who are also affected by this.
We were planning to take part in an event for #PAday2020 in Manchester, but unfortunately, the event has been cancelled because of the pandemic. However, the lockdown hasn't stopped us from launching an initiative to raise awareness of behaviours and family justice failures to highlight this issue in the UK.
We are inviting people to create a short, high-quality video about young people’s experiences of family separation and family courts around the world. If you are over 18 and can recall having experience of your own parent's separation or know someone who does, we would like you to contribute. We often hear of the experiences of parents. Those are important voices, but the voices of children caught in the middle can powerfully tell that story from the perspective of those who matter most.
We need our politicians to see and hear first-hand what it’s like being a young person going through family separation and family courts. Your videos won’t be shown publicly or put online (unless you give us explicit permission to do so), and you can do this anonymously – without being identified – unless you want to be. But it’s important that our politicians are brought face-to-face with the harm done by the current system so that they will feel it must change for future generations of children and their families.
This is the first of a number of initiatives this coming year to help get the message out about the damage caused by a family justice system that is not fit for purpose. It is essential that the government deals firmly and fairly with enmeshed, inappropriate parental behaviour that often causes children to reject a once-loved parent. It is also important that the family justice system itself does not add to the difficulties that children of separated families endure.
Please help us to bring this to life by making a video and sending it to us. If you wish to participate and help us raise awareness, you can send your videos and completed consent forms to admin@fnf.org.uk using "My Childhood Experience" as the subject line.
We suggest using WeTransfer to upload your videos. You can download more details of this initiative, how to make your video and consent form from the attachment in the email.
You can download the consent form to complete below:
What do you think?
Send us feedback!
