ISG Meetings - July 2025 - Trauma-Informed Wales

The Implementation Steering Group met in Swansea today and alongside the meeting itself were welcomed to visit the offices of Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team (EYST). EYST works with people across Wales to reach their fullest potential through holistic, targeted, and culturally sensitive programmes, where everyone can contribute, participate, and thrive. ISG members enjoyed hearing more about the projects, seeing the facilities in Swansea and hearing from the team about the importance of their work, and hearing firsthand about the progress of a project, in collaboration with ACE Hub Wales, to understand the experience of racial trauma in Wales. For more information on EYST, click here.

The meeting got underway after lunch in Brangwn Hall and the ISG invited Selima Bahadur, all Wales Engagement Project Lead from EYST, to update the members on their racial trauma project Do You See My Trauma? Selima gave an outline of the interviews and conversations that had taken place so far and some of the initial findings. This work be published later in the summer and will directly inform the review and redevelopment of existing resources to reflect the experiences of racial trauma in support of an anti-racist Wales; and the co-development of further support for organisations implementing the Trauma and ACE informed toolkit.

Our second guest speaker was Helen Stacey, Head of Counselling and Therapeutic Services at New Pathways, sharing work on their trauma-informed approach, and in particular the breadth of training they provide at several of the practice levels of the Framework, for organisations and people supporting survivors of sexual violence. New Pathways are the largest sexual violence support provider in Wales, with 30 years’ experience of delivering specialist therapeutic support to adults and children. For more information on New Pathways and the services they offer, click here.

ACE Hub Wales deputy Lead Natalie Blakeborough updated the group on the on the findings from the TrACE-Informed Organisations Evaluation conducted by MEL Research. The independent evaluation looks at the independently evaluated the impact of the implementation of the TrACE-Informed Organisations Toolkit , in five organisations from a range of sectors across Wales, Key findings include positive recognition of the support of the ACE Hub in the implementation process, recommendations for areas of focus around readiness for change and practical tools to support sustaining it and the ‘ripple effect’ of positive outcomes extending beyond the organisation itself. The summary report, published this week, includes case studies to showcase the positive impact of the work in the five organisations on the workforce itself and people accessing the services the organisations provide.

To view and download the Summary Report, click here.

The work will directly inform the priority of the monitoring and evaluation working group to develop a robust approach to support the implementation and measure impact.