Women working to support women in the welfare sphere

What’s on offer?

We plan an interactive presentation of key findings (using colourful infographics, mini podcasts and illustrated briefings) from research exploring challenges faced in the pandemic and post-pandemic period by women working in organisations that deliver services, support and advocacy to trauma-experienced women and girls who may be socially isolated, economically marginalised and/or disadvantaged in various ways. 

What’s it about?

It is now well-established that women bore the brunt of the negative impacts of COVID-19 and its associated restrictions, which led to increased workload for women both in the home and workplace and rendered lower-wage posts ever more precarious. We sought to understand how having to deliver trauma working through the constraints of physical distancing, home working and recourse to digital technologies affected workers’ personal and professional lives including their abilities to maintain professional relationships with service users and colleagues and how they managed personal and family needs, alongside increased concerns about service users safety, health, wellbeing, finances and ongoing trauma. 
At the same time, and in parallel to the more commonly documented negative effects of vicarious traumatisation we explored ways in which vicarious resilience was developed as a positive effect of exposure to service users’ traumatic experiences.  We found opportunities for growth and positive change resulting from witnessing and responding to service users’ own resilience and recovery process and documented how this strengthened frontline workers’ motivation to carry out this work, and their understanding of service users’ experiences, and provided an increased sensitivity.

Who’s leading the event?

Michele Burman

Open to

Anyone is welcome