Posted on: 9 July 2025
On Monday, 8 July, over 75 education and health professionals gathered in Leeds for the West Yorkshire Trauma-Informed Education Conference, an event focused on creating safe, supportive and empowering learning environments through trauma-informed practices.
Bringing together educators, health and other leaders, mental health experts and community organisations from across the region, the conference provided a platform to explore the effects of trauma on learners and how educational institutions can better support healing and resilience.
Organised by the West Yorkshire Adversity, Trauma and Resilience (ATR) programme, the event featured keynote speakers including Dr Lisa Cherry, Dr Warren Larkin, Cath Knibbs and a series of impactful, themed workshops.
Caroline Andrews, Senior Project Manager - Adversity, Trauma and Resilience, said: “This conference isn’t just about theory - it’s about action. We’ve brought together passionate professionals to share tools, strategies and innovations that can transform learning spaces into safe spaces for both students and staff.”
Sessions throughout the day covered a diverse range of themes, such as cultivating belonging in education, supporting mental health and staff wellbeing, exploring racial trauma, addressing the needs of male survivors of sexual violence and creating inclusive and flexible learning pathways for young people. Interactive workshops shared proven approaches and tools to help attendees reflect and apply what they learned to real-life situations.
Attendees were also given the opportunity to learn about group reflective practice, trauma-informed school leadership and the importance of community collaboration. The sessions provided valuable insight into how we can implement trauma-informed and trauma-responsive approaches across different education settings, from early years to adult learning.
Emm Irving, Head of Improving Population Health, said: “Every learner carries a story and so does every educator. Today was about building shared understanding and promoting trauma-informed culture across all levels of education.”
Participants left equipped with ideas and strategies to help make educational settings safer, more compassionate and more responsive to the needs of their communities.
The West Yorkshire Adversity, Trauma and Resilience (ATR) Programme is jointly managed by West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership and the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership. The programme has a growing network which now has around 700 partners and organisations who share a common ambition of a trauma informed West Yorkshire by 2030. For more information and resources sign up to the ATR digital portal or search ‘trauma informed West Yorkshire’.