“Be Seen, Be Heard”

Introduction

Freedom from Abuse and Leigh Day are proud to present “Be Seen, Be Heard”: a conference focusing on children and young people’s experiences of abuse and the environmental conditions and personal coping strategies that can best promote resilience and recovery.

At this time of unprecedented challenges for many children and young people, we are delighted to be hearing from many speakers with direct experience of adverse childhood events, whose stories provide a beacon of hope as to the possibility of achieving positive post-traumatic outcomes, and who will share with us their perspectives on what can be done to support young people to move forward with life after adversity.

In the past year in particular, the Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the urgent and overwhelming need for societal change to achieve racial equality and full human rights for people of colour. We are particularly pleased to welcome a diverse range of contributors, who can speak as to the interplay between race and the experience of childhood trauma, the assumptions, barriers and ceilings that need to be broken to enable young Black people to live lives free from abuse.

We hope that this will be a valuable event for young people, those who care for or work with young people and others who wish their practice to be “trauma-informed”.