The trauma-informed institution

If your university wants to improve its response to sexual harassment where should you start and what are the pitfalls to avoid? This important but complex terrain requires careful navigation. It can feel risky to talk about these issues with staff and students. It can be hard to know where to start if this is an issue you haven't had the opportunity to give a lot of thought to in the past and thanks to the complexity of the terrain, too often well-intentioned interventions don't have the impact you were hoping for. The good news is that there are people who have been charting this terrain for years.

The Consent Collective brings a unique expert lens to this area. This is the land we know. We've worked with justice, health and education systems throughout the UK and beyond. Our work has taken us everywhere from parliaments to music festivals and we'd be happy to share the lessons and insights we've picked up along the way so that you can develop a response to sexual harassment that feels both safe and sophisticated. 

For our Spring 2022 Thought Leadership Seminar we're going to focus on being trauma-informed as a higher education institution. Topics covered will include 

• Trauma overview - what is it and how does it impact people and communities
• Trauma and responses to sexual harassment
• Trauma in and out of the classroom
• What does being 'trauma-informed' mean?
• Trauma reimagined - what are the opportunities at your institution?

This seminar is for university staff and will be of benefit for people who are

• Senior leadership within the university
• Provide wellbeing for staff or students
• HR roles
• Involved in the reporting or investigation aspects of sexual harassment
• Part of Diversity and Inclusion
• Passionate about creating change through your academic disciplin or tutoring work with students
• Part of Residential teams on campus
• Part of security teams on campus
• Passionate about ensuring students who are living with trauma are supported to do well emotionally and academically at your campus

The seminar will be hosted by Dr Nina Burrowes and Cynthia Ellis from The Consent Collective (click here for bios). As well as hearing from both of them there will also be plenty of opportunity for you to ask questions and share any lessons that you've already picked up from your journey in this terrain so far.

Comfort is important - we will have a 20 minute comfort break at 11.30.

At the end of the seminar there will be an optional 30 minute session where we will take you on a guided tour of our resources including Consent Collective TV. This part of the seminar will run from 13.00 to 13.30 so please put some extra time in your diary if you think you would like to attend this.