Responding to trauma
Most people who come to Back on Track have experienced some kind of trauma in their lives.
Often this means adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that continue to affect them into adulthood. Physical or emotional abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, mental illness, substance abuse and witnessing domestic violence are all examples of ACEs.
At Back on Track we are part of the Trauma Responsive Greater Manchester initiative. We have worked to make our own service more trauma responsive, including specialist training for all team members. We've also launched special projects that enable our members to explore the issue of trauma, and to use their lived experience to bring about positive change.
Our award winning Understanding Trauma project was an example of psychoeduction - learning all about the science behind trauma and how it can affect behaviour. Our members shared their own experiences of using other services and how they often failed to take trauma into account. The project won the Learning Group award at the Manchester Adult Education and Skills Plan Awards.
Our members came up with a set of principles and ideas for how services can be trauma informed. We have used them to create a self-assessment reflection toolkit which organisations can use - click to read and download. We've also developed training built around these insights - please contact us if you're interested in us running this for you.
Ocean Chorus zine about trauma
In another project our members created their own zine on the subject of trauma. Ocean Chorus is designed to inspire service professionals to work in a more trauma responsive way. The content was created by people with lived experience, and includes reflections, illustrations and poems. One member said, 'The project was so important because very often my actions are misunderstood, even by those closest to me. Unless you’ve experienced something like this and people are really aware, they can’t know what to look out for.'
You can read and download the zine, or hard copies are also available on request by emailing info@backontrackmanchester.org.uk
