How to be a Trauma-informed Leader

Are you a practitioner who supports victims-survivors of domestic and sexual abuse from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds in the East of England? If so, this training is for you!

Welcome to a series of leadership workshops curated by Dr Mirna Guha, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Anglia Ruskin University and Dr Katherine Allen, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Social Justice and Crime, University of Suffolk, and delivered by national experts on Violence Against Women and Girls (with a focus on domestic and sexual abuse) policy, practice and research. These training series is part of research co-led by Dr Guha and Dr Allen titled "‘Nothing about us without us’: Investigating the impact of the leadership of ethnic minority women on domestic abuse service provision in East England" funded by the VISION (Violence, Health, Society) Consortium and the UKPRP through a MRC Research Council Grant Ref: MR/V049879/1.

This hybrid training will be led by Fiona Ellis, OBE, CEO and co-founder of Survivors in Transition (SiT), a Suffolk-based charity that supports anyone who has experienced sexual violence in childhood through a range of trauma-informed, psycho-educational activities. Fiona is an expert in promoting trauma-informed practice (TIP) and transforming systems to promote better outcomes for survivors. She delivers system-wide education on TIP across Suffolk and North East Essex, working closely with voluntary and statutory services, commissioners and community members. The training will be held on MS teams and at the Ipswich campus of the University of Suffolk.

In this interactive and informative workshop, Fiona will explore key principles of TIP to develop your knowledge and shape your professional and personal development as women leaders supporting victims-survivors from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds, and through this, create more equitable and inclusive services.

In this workshop, you will build your knowledge around:

· Psychological safety and its importance in your everyday work with survivors

· Tools of self-advocacy within your organisations/places of work

· Mapping pathways to leadership and forward planning for career progression as a trauma-informed leader

· How to deal with impostor syndrome and build confidence

· Communities of practice and the importance of collective empowerment and peer support in your personal and professional development as a current/emerging leader from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds

· Familiarity with key principles of Trauma Informed Leadership to change systems, and awareness of how TIP principles intersect with transformative leadership, including creating safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, voice, choice and cultural inclusion for staff and service users.

This training has been designed in response to focus group discussions undertaken by Dr Mirna Guha and Dr Katherine Allen on leadership and safety with practitioners from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds working within domestic and sexual abuse service provision across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Bedfordshire. Through this training, and others in the series, we aim to improve services for victims-survivors from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds in the East of England.

Host or Publisher Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge