At the final event of the ‘Safe Places, Thriving Children: Embedding Trauma Informed Care into Alternative Care Settings’ project, young people with care experience urged decision-makers to invest in trauma awareness. The project is providing training that is transforming alternative care settings across Europe.
What is ‘Trauma Informed Care’?
Children and young people who have lost parental care are more likely than their peers to have faced adverse childhood experiences.
Lubos Tibensky, psychologist and SOS Children’s Villages’ programme advisor, explains: “Children in alternative care face a specific type of trauma that we call complex trauma. It is caused by repeated adverse experiences during childhood and can result in vulnerability and influence the development of the child.”
To support children’s recovery and build relationships based on understanding and trust, caregivers need adequate mental health knowledge. Despite the widespread and ever-growing demand, many professionals still receive little or no training on adverse childhood experiences, trauma and the effects it might have on a child’s development.
The Safe Places, Thriving Children project aims to transform child-care and protection systems so that caregivers are trained in trauma-informed practices. The project of SOS Children’s Villages International was developed in partnership with CELCIS and SOS Children’s Villages’ member associations in Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary and Serbia.
Over the past two years, the EU-funded project developed a framework to train child and youth care practitioners across Europe, which is now spreading outside the original project countries and may soon be implemented in other regions.
I discovered that my story is good enough to tell and that people can learn from it. I used to think that my experience didn’t matter – so many worse things could have happened, so I am not allowed to complain. During training, I noticed that people like to hear my story and can reflect on themselves through it.”
Embedding youth experience
The International Young Expert Group played a central role in the Safe Places, Thriving Children project, ensuring that youth participation was a priority throughout the initiative.
Ioanna Iatrouli, a 27-year-old from Greece, explains that “the idea of youth participation wasn’t lost throughout the project. Experts have their studies in mind, but they were never in our shoes. Together, we could come to better conclusions.”. These insights formed the basis of the project’s idea, training, and policy recommendations.
In addition to participating in meetings with decision-makers, young people also co-trained with professionals in their countries during 6-day-long trauma-informed practices trainings. This direct engagement was crucial to the success of the project, according to Ljiljana Ban, coordinator of the International Young Expert Group, as it allowed professionals to learn directly from young people.
Kristien Schoenmaeckers, a young expert from Belgium, found that sharing her experience was a transformative experience for both herself and the caregivers she worked with. “Delivering the training gave the young people the feeling of agency and made them feel heard,” she says. “Caregivers were glad that I was there to share my experience. They told me it was an added value and it made me feel like I made a difference. I discovered that my story is good enough to tell and that people can learn from it. I used to think that my experience didn’t matter – so many worse things could have happened, so I am not allowed to complain. During training, I noticed that people like to hear my story and can reflect on themselves through it.”
Complex trauma happens in relationships, but relationships are also where children heal. You don’t have to be a therapist to behave in a therapeutic way. Sensitive day-to-day care is often the most important for children’s ability to recover.
Healing relationships
The Safe Places, Thriving Children project recognises that every child who has been separated from their family needs support, as this separation can cause distress and trauma.
Therefore, a key focus of the project is on building strong bonds that foster mental well-being and healthy development in children. As explained by CELCIS expert Linda Davidson, “complex trauma happens in relationships, but relationships are also where children heal. You don’t have to be a therapist to behave in a therapeutic way. Sensitive day-to-day care is often the most important for children’s ability to recover.”
According to Ioanna Iatrouli, “the training developed within Safe Places, Thriving Children is helpful because it clarifies what makes a child or young person feel safe. Sometimes, you need solutions like therapy. But you always need someone to ask you how your day was and mean it. Someone to ask you how you did in school and prepare a meal for you. Someone that cares for you, humanely.”
The project also recognizes that to prevent intergenerational trauma, adults in the care system must not only meet the mental health needs of children but also equip them with the right tools for the future. Strong bonds with caregivers can make children feel secure and teach them how to express love in a safe way. Young people who experience nurturing relationships learn how to build stable bonds, which can prepare them for independent life.
One of the key messages developed by a group of young people in the project underscores the importance of learning to love in a healthy way to avoid continuing the cycle of trauma:
“When we grow out of the care system and have our own families, we need to know how to love them in a healthy way so we do not continue the cycle of trauma. The ways in which we have been shown love may be hurtful and wrong, and they may be the only way we know.”
Influencing policy to create lasting impact
The concept of trauma-informed care is revolutionising the approach to children and young people without parental care. By shifting the focus from “What is wrong with them?” to “What has happened to this person?”, care practitioners gain insight into how to support their mental well-being effectively.
Within Safe Places, Thriving Children, young people have a central role in developing policy recommendations and meeting with decision-makers to ensure their experiences are taken into account. This project aims to transform alternative care settings across Europe by training care professionals in trauma-informed practices.
Marie-Cécile Rouillon, the European Commission Coordinator for the Rights of the Child, says: “We are listening to young people’s feedback as we implement the Strategy on the Rights of the Child and take other initiatives at the European level that ultimately have the same objective – to respond to the needs of children. While developing policies, we must fight obstacles instead of just asking children to change. Safe Places, Thriving Children shows the importance of a child-center approach to policymaking.”
The methodology developed within the project supports caregivers in recognising and responding to the long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences on individuals, families, and societies.
By providing guidance on how to introduce trauma-sensitive practices into daily work, Safe Places, Thriving Children encourages caregivers to prioritise their own mental well-being. This project targets all levels of care systems and is beneficial to a wide range of professionals.
Psychologist Teresa Ngigi argues that, in order to create lasting impact, the training must reach all levels of care systems, from caregivers to international leadership. “In a trauma-informed organisation, the way we all relate to children changes. During one of my training sessions, care professionals shared their own traumatic experiences. They said: Help us heal first and we will be able to support children.”
“We have been lacking a global perspective. When I travelled to deliver training, everyone assumed I was there for caregivers. Now, everyone is involved. Next week, I am training senior management of SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia.”
“I would love the entire federation to become trauma-informed. The project is already taking root in Africa. We see it giving children voice and changing the way people look at alternative care. There are plans to do the same in Asia and Latin America. There is no coming back. We are moving on.”
What happens next?
Safe Places, Thriving Children aims to reach as many children and young people affected by trauma as possible, taking into account their unique backgrounds and experiences. Among the available resources, there is guidance on culturally sensitive trauma-informed care in the context of migration. Experts agree that the methodology developed within the project is useful for care professionals supporting children without parental care who have been through armed conflicts, natural disasters or other adverse childhood experiences that cause migration and displacement.
In addition to in-person training, there is an e-learning programme available, useful for a wide range of professionals from the social, educational, health and justice sectors. Raising trauma awareness on a large scale and for the long term is key as more and more children are at risk of losing parental care due to conflict and displacement caused by climate change.
“Working in partnership with SOS Children’s Villages, we all have the responsibility to contribute to the sustainability of Safe Places, Thriving Children and to bring the inspiration from the final event to the project events in our countries,” says Dani Koleva from UNICEF Bulgaria.
In SOS Children’s Villages, the capacity building has already started outside of the original project countries.
Teresa Ngigi says: “I would love the entire federation to become trauma-informed. The project is already taking root in Africa. We see it giving children voice and changing the way people look at alternative care. There are plans to do the same in Asia and Latin America. There is no coming back. We are moving on.”
