Written evidence from Change, Grow, Live [MIS0069]

Change Grow Live (CGL) is the largest third sector provider of drug and alcohol services in the UK, providing services to adults and young people both in the community and across the criminal justice system. We deliver care and support to over 200,000 people each year in more than 250 communities. As one of the biggest employers of health and social care professionals outside the NHS, we work across health, justice, education and social care systems to reduce harm, support recovery and tackle health inequalities. We are responding to this inquiry because, through our work with some of the UK’s most marginalised young men, we regularly encounter misogynistic views and harmful gender norms that affect both individual recovery and wider community safety. Our trauma-informed programme In Your Corner is one of the few national interventions directly addressing these issues within drug and alcohol treatment settings.

Section 1: Misogyny: Measuring the problem

How prevalent are misogynistic views, attitudes and behaviour among young people today, particularly in educational settings? What examples are there of these views, attitudes and behaviours? In what other settings are such behaviours prevalent?

From our frontline experience, misogynistic views and behaviours are worryingly prevalent among young people who access drug and alcohol services – particularly young men. These behaviours can often go unchecked in male-dominated treatment environments, and can be reinforced by the broader drug and criminal justice contexts in which many of our service users operate.

Men account for over two-thirds of the UK drug and alcohol treatment population.[1] As a result, many treatment environments such as waiting rooms, peer groups and communal spaces tend to be male dominated.[2] This has shaped service design around male needs and behaviours, often to the exclusion of women.[3] These environments can be intimidating or re-traumatising for women, particularly those with histories of gender-based violence.[4]

In these spaces, harmful attitudes about women are present, and can be normalised and reinforced. Staff and service users have reported that misogynistic language, coercive attitudes and predatory behaviours are not uncommon, and often go unchallenged. Without structured interventions or reflective spaces, these environments can become echo chambers for toxic masculine norms.

Our In Your Corner programme offers unique insight into these dynamics. In Your Corner is a trauma-informed, 14-session psychosocial intervention delivered by Change Grow Live for young men aged 18–30 on probation who are reluctant to engage with drug and alcohol services. The programme focuses on positive identity formation, emotional literacy, and healthier models of masculinity, and is delivered through one-to-one mentoring and community-based activity. Through this work, we routinely encounter attitudes that reflect harmful attitudes towards women, objectify or blame women, and reflect deeply ingrained beliefs about dominance, emotional suppression and control.

Examples include statements like: “If she dresses like that, she knows what she’s doing”. One young man told us he believed men should be free to sleep with multiple partners, while women should not. He even said women should “abdicate their power” to their male partner. While these comments may appear extreme, they reflect broader gendered entitlement, rigid hierarchies, and assumptions that are rarely challenged in the environments these young men come from.

These views are shaped by a combination of online content, peer networks, music, pornography, life experience and public figures who promote hypermasculinity. In sessions, participants often reference high-profile influencers who frame dominance, control and emotional suppression as aspirational traits, particularly resonating with young men who feel overlooked or powerless in wider society.

From our experience, “hypermasculinity” has become a core barrier to early engagement with young men. However, with the right approaches and targeted support, engagement can be improved. Through our In Your Corner programme, since October 2024, we’ve engaged 60 young men with a 90% retention rate. These young people often don’t identify their views as harmful until trusted relationships with professionals allow space to explore and reflect on them.

While our work focuses on young adults, it’s important to recognise that misogynistic attitudes don’t just appear overnight, but often start to form much earlier. From a young age, children are influenced by what they see and hear at home, in school, and in the media. As they move into adolescence, those early ideas can harden into more fixed beliefs, especially in circumstances where children do not have the chance to talk openly about gender, identity and relationships as they grow. By the time young people come into our services, many have internalised harmful ideas that have gone unchallenged for years

Importantly, misogyny in these cases is not simply imported from online spaces. It is rooted in lived experience, trauma, inequality and environments where misogynistic attitudes are routinely normalised. That’s why our response must be grounded in the real-world experiences of young men and not solely framed as a digital issue.

Section 2: Recommended interventions to address misogyny

What strategies and interventions are needed to address misogyny among young people?

Addressing misogyny among young people requires more than punitive measures or online regulation. It demands early, relational and trauma-informed interventions that help young men reflect on their beliefs, explore healthier models of masculinity, and build the emotional tools to form respectful relationships.

We also think it’s crucial to recognise that tackling misogyny isn’t just about young people. It is about understanding how these attitudes are shaped over time. What someone sees and hears in early childhood sets the tone. During adolescence, when identity and relationships are developing, young people need safe spaces to talk and reflect. And by adulthood, when beliefs may be more ingrained, interventions need to help people unpack and challenge what they’ve come to see as normal.

One such intervention for adults is In Your Corner, a programme developed by Change Grow Live in response to a clear gap in engagement with young men in the criminal justice system.

In Your Corner was created after identifying young men on probation not engaging with drug and alcohol services. This resistance stemmed from internalised beliefs about masculinity, vulnerability, and strength. Many of the young men we work with equated asking for help with weakness, emotional expression with failure, and control with success.

Our 14-week psychosocial programme is designed to shift those beliefs. Delivered through one-to-one mentoring and community-based activity, it includes modules like Crash Course into Masculinity, Ripple Effects of Hypermasculinity and Behind the Mask. These sessions help participants unpick dominant narratives about gender, emotion, control and identity, often for the first time in their lives.

We use tools like the “Man Box” to surface beliefs about power, dominance and emotional suppression, and to build connections between those beliefs and harmful attitudes towards women. This reframing is done in gyms, cafés, and other familiar environments, where we can build trust before introducing difficult topics.

Instead of focusing on ‘fixing’ young men, our approach walks alongside them as they reflect, challenge and reframe. This approach is relational, practical and trauma-informed, and enables sustained engagement and mindset shift. Participants complete the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and a bespoke Man Box evaluation tool before and after the programme, helping us track improvements in emotional literacy and shifts in attitudes to gender.

However, the challenge of misogyny among young people cannot be addressed in isolation or through digital regulation alone. While the influence of online content, social media and pornography is undeniable, too much of the Government’s response to date has focused narrowly on the digital sphere, through measures such as the Online Safety Act. This lens misses the wider structural and social drivers that shape young men’s attitudes long before they go online. We see every day that misogyny is also fostered offline such as in peer groups and communities where harmful beliefs are rarely named or addressed.

To meaningfully address misogyny, we must recognise it as a public health issue rooted in trauma and shame, and one that is preventable. It’s not just about stopping misogyny, it’s about understanding the root causes. Similar to issues such as harmful drinking or drug use, risky behaviour or poor mental health, those root causes can be addressed. We’ve seen that with the right support such as trauma-informed care, consistent relationships, and services that meet people where they are, young men can shift their thinking. That same kind of support should be part of the policy response to misogyny.

If we’re serious about tackling misogyny, we need to act earlier and stay involved for longer. That means putting the right messages in front of children, giving teenagers space to question what they’re seeing and hearing, and supporting adults to rethink harmful beliefs. It’s a long-term challenge, but one that starts with recognising the different kinds of support people need at different stages of life.

A mindset shift is needed across government. Misogyny among young people must be treated as a cross-departmental challenge that affects justice, health, education, safeguarding and digital policy. Effective prevention demands joined-up investment in early intervention, particularly in trusted community services that already work with vulnerable young people and understand the complex interplay between identity, masculinity, drug and alcohol use and social harm.

Change Grow Live stands ready to support this shift. As the UK’s largest third sector provider of drug and alcohol services, we are already delivering practical, trauma-informed interventions that support young people to challenge harmful beliefs, build emotional resilience and develop healthier relationships. If the Government is serious about preventing misogyny and building safer communities, these models must be embedded in future policy design.