Last Wednesday I delivered and facilitated a workshop to social care professionals on how to support young people that have experienced familial sexual abuse. It was my first workshop that I delivered as an independent Trainer for Wandsworth Children’s social care academy. It was very poignant for me; I developed this workshop from personal experience. It was also significant because as a young girl  I was placed in care in this borough. Learning from experience I believe is one of the most empowering ways people can bring real change to lives.

Social workers who work on child in need (CIN) teams, Connexions personal advisers for young people, social work managers and other professionals attended this workshop; the session was fully booked. It was a surreal moment for me to stand and deliver training at the same school where I first found my voice thirty years ago. It was when Childline came to visit the school to talk about sexual abuse that I was empowered, it was the same school I was expelled from at 14yrs old for unmanageable behaviour. To be able to give insight and knowledge about the challenges and trauma I faced as a young girl was a very reflective process for me. But it was very powerful to be able to channel those experiences into constructive training to equip and help the professionals to empower the young people they work with.

It was a great honour to work alongside ex-police Detective Sergeant Debbie Moore. Until recently Debbie worked for the MET police for thirty years, and she spent the latter years investigating cases of child sexual abuse. Debbie delivered a thought-provoking presentation on how criminal cases are put together surrounding child sexual abuse. She also used my case as an example so that the professionals could put it into perspective on from the information she shared. The feedback we received post evaluation was most encouraging and all the participants felt they gained information on a topic they know little about. This was a fantastic outcome and the aim of the workshop was accomplished.

I will be doing more of these workshops this year and hope to deliver others that I have devised. This is what YEME Empowerment is all about; facilitating empowerment to bring changes to lives.

To find out more about workshops that YEME Empowerment offer click here:

http://www.yemeempowerment.com/empowerment-workshops/

• care
• empowerment
• experience
• journey
• learning
• trauma
• workshop