Trauma-informed

Many of the young people supported by Concrete Rose have faced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) and have disrupted attachment styles with their primary care givers (Bowlby 1969). This can severely impact their cognitive processing and emotional, social and behavioural responses (Perry and Szalavitz 2017, Seigel 1999 etc). Central to helping young people recover, heal and flourish is a therapeutic model that recognises the impact of trauma and proactively supports recovery. Drawing on the work of Prilleltensky and Nelson (2000), Cairns (2019) and Barton, S., Gonzalez, R. and Tomlinson, P (2011) our approach proactively develop wellness in four areas key to overall wellbeing and recovery from trauma:

• Environmental Wellness (Peace)
• Relational Wellness (People)
• Personal Wellness (Personal significance)
• Vocational wellness (Purpose)

These areas of focus are embedded within an organisation wide ‘Therapeutic culture’ that informs all of our work.

1. Values driven approach

Our core values underpin the culture of our organisation:

2. Assessment based

Accurate assessment is essential to tailoring a support package that responds to the unique needs (and desires) of each young person and gives the best opportunity for impact. “You can have assessment without treatment, but you certainly can’t have treatment without assessment” (Ward, 2004).

3. Outcomes focussed

Our objective is to increase wellbeing by focussing on the areas of environmental, relational, personal, and vocational wellness recognising that “social care services are likely to be most effective when they are orientated towards outcomes: concerned with, designed, provided and evaluated in terms of the results experienced by the people for whom they are intended” (Willis 2001, p. 139).

4. Reflective practice

Reflective practice is at the heart of all our work (from board meetings to interactions with young people) recognising the importance of identifying our feelings and emotions and learning from experience in order that we can develop our practice.