Mindful Employer Project Coordinator Leigh Staunton opens the event on 23rd April
Recently, the Leeds Mindful Employer Network welcomed more than 60 people from a variety of different industries across sectors to an in-person event “Cultivating Safe, Strong and Supportive Workplaces for All”, held in the Banqueting Suite of Leeds Civic Hall.
Attendees heard from expert and lived-experience speakers from: Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds City Council, Timpson, Leeds Mind, the Oakland Group, GIPSIL, Enable Disability and Inclusion Consultants, Lloyds Banking Group and the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership.
Speakers shared valuable knowledge, insights, lived experiences and case studies on:
– What becoming trauma-informed means for employers
– Why a culture of kindness and support works best
– Applying a trauma-informed lens to recruitment: creating safety to get the best out of everyone
– The impact of racial trauma and the power of allyship in the workplace
– The impact of trauma-informed workplaces
– Creating compassionate and inclusive workplaces for colleagues who are neurodivergent
– Navigating grief and loss with compassion and understanding
– The West Yorkshire Trauma-informed Charter
– The impact of reflective practice across an organisation
Kristy Dean, Head of People and Culture at Perform Partners in Leeds shares her reflections and learnings from this event:
“Perform Partners has been a member of the Leeds Mindful Employer Network for over a year now and I joined the Employer Steering Group Committee in June 2024. It’s both a pleasure and a privilege to support this important initiative. This event, “Cultivating Safe, Strong and Supportive Workplaces for All”, related to transforming your approach to wellbeing at work by becoming trauma-informed with a focus on understanding, compassion and empathy.
My key takeaways as an employer were:
• Clearer definitions of trauma, including “Trauma is not what happens to you, it is what happens inside of you because of what happens to you”
• Trauma is linked to a “Fear response that doesn’t switch off: individuals impacted can be stuck in fear, cannot feel safe”.
• Racial trauma refers to the mental and emotional injury caused by encounters with racial bias, discrimination, and racism that can also be linked to violence enacted on ancestors or in society today.
• Aim to cultivate curiosity and compassion with an appreciation that we are all doing the best we can in life with what we’ve got and what we’ve had, and avoid “trauma-digging” (asking too many unnecessary questions about the roots of someone’s trauma). Focus on what can help someone feel safe, and to thrive in the now.
• Becoming trauma-informed in the workplace and beyond involves a key shift in thinking from asking someone, “What’s wrong with you?” to considering “What’s happened to you?”. Transformative change comes from seeking to discover, “What’s strong about you?” and asking “What do you need?”.
• There are 6 principles to a trauma-informed approach – Safety, Trust & Transparency, Peer Support & Connection, Cultural Humility & Responsiveness, Empowerment and Collaboration.
When it comes to becoming trauma-informed, we can learn so much from the lived experience of others. It takes enormous courage to share experiences, and I want to say a heartfelt thank you to those on the day that spoke about their trauma and the positive impacts the approach had for them.
From those people I learned:
• Good work can be part of a coping, healing journey
• Becoming a trauma-informed employer is a journey that takes time
• One single thing doesn’t make a difference, it takes lots of small things – something we’re very aware of at Perform Partners and embed in our day-to-day interactions with each other
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in organising and delivering this event. Inspiring is a great word to describe everyone involved!”
Thanks so much to Kristy for sharing her key learnings as an employer in attendance at our first in-person event of the financial year.
Other feedback from employers in attendance at the event included:
- “I liked the variety of speakers – it showed the breadth of areas within the workplace where being trauma-informed in your approach is vital for colleagues, customers and clients.”
- “Good informative sessions, from different groups of people in healthcare and business”
- “Knowledgeable speakers that shared information in a way that I found easy to understand”
- “The event was great, sensitively handled and really engaging.”
Useful information on support available for West Yorkshire businesses or organisations wishing to become trauma-informed
The West Yorkshire Trauma Informed Charter
If you’d like to find out more about becoming trauma-informed as an organisation, getting involved in the West Yorkshire Trauma Informed Charter is a great place to start.
Businesses and organisations across all sectors and industries in West Yorkshire can sign up to the trauma informed charter to confirm their commitment to becoming trauma-informed.
The West Yorkshire Informed Charter is a document which aims to ‘set the scene’ across West Yorkshire, to support our system and organisations to embed a trauma informed and responsive approach.
Organisations are asked to complete a Readiness Checklist. This readiness checklists helps organisations to understand where they are currently in their trauma-informed journey. After this is completed, employers are sent a copy of the Charter.
Adversity Trauma and Resilience (ATR) Programme: Training and development for organisations
Your business or organisation can get training and development support from the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership’s Adversity, Trauma and Resilience (ATR) Programme.
The ATR programme supports organisations to become trauma-informed through,
• A half-day, in-person Trauma-informed training session, which provides a foundational introduction to adversity, trauma and resilience
• Working with you to design a bespoke trauma-informed journey for your organisation
• Access to the resources on the ATR Knowledge Hub and Knowledge Exchange
• The West Yorkshire Trauma Informed Charter Readiness Checklist
Useful Links
Download the ATR Training and Development Brochure
Sign up for the ATR Knowledge Hub and Knowledge Exchange
Take a look at the trauma-informed readiness checklist for organisations
Read about the West Yorkshire trauma-informed charter
Not yet a member of the Leeds Mindful Employer Network? It’s quick, free and easy to sign up. Members will be the first to hear about our upcoming events.
