Welcoming and Supporting Vulnerable Families

It has been (& will be) a real pleasure working in partnership with Safe Families and 100 Homes. Our shared training event on 28th November at Cornerstone Church was exceptional, thanks to really top-notch input from Fiona Eve (Safe Families), Zoe Bell (100 Homes) and Neil Fearn (both!).

Fiona provided an excellent introduction to the concept of trauma informed support and then did a follow up session on how to apply this when welcoming and including children and young people affected by trauma. It's impossible to sum up everything we learnt, but one concept stuck in mind. Children affected by trauma will often behave as though there is permanently a tiger in the room. Yet there are strategies that can be effective in calmly helping the child overcome fear and anxiety in order to feel safe.

Zoe provided us with really helpful and practical trauma informed strategies for welcoming and including children and young people. I (Nigel) really felt this was so useful for working with children in every situation. She also led an inspiring and challenging session to equip churches to be much better at supporting families with fostered or adopted children.

Neil and I led a session to encourage church and project leaders/volunteers to share their stories of encouragement and challenge. It was so good to hear such positive stories of the church at work supporting children and young people.
There were over 120 in attendance and I think everyone found it helpful and inspiring. I could have done with this training 30 years ago, it was so insightful. I would honestly encourage every church to pay Zoe and Fiona to come and provide this training.

We will be following up this training with an opportunity in the new year for those interested in exploring with us what further training can be offered and how we can develop a more joined up approach to ensuring even the most vulnerable families can access the right support.