Yesterday, we were honored to attend the Children and Young People Now Awards Ceremony. Being in a room with so many inspiring colleagues and organisations, who are all doing their part in helping children and young people thrive, was a great reminder of the importance of helping children through trauma. In this blog, our Director of Services, Sam, reflects on what trauma is and how our approach can help children get the right help from the start, building skills that last a lifetime.
Trauma is that feeling when we sense we have something missing, and we put expectations or limits on ourselves. It hurts in a way we cannot describe, and the truth is trauma creates a black hole in our bodies, and some days that hole is so big it fills our whole selves, and other days it moves, and we can feel it shifting.
When we do things that are nice, or we enjoy, or have people around us that we trust, it helps. It doesn’t make the hole go away but it makes it a little bit smaller, and the gap is filled with less darkness. We cannot control the black hole and when it starts to bother us sometimes all we can do is acknowledge that it hurts because it hurts.
A child may not know about the little black hole, they may think they are the only ones to ever have something missing in them, they may not know how they can fill it, and they may not understand why it hurts so much. So, they find ways to cope. That can be self-harming, acting out at school, or it might be just feeling stuck as the black hole is taking over!
If children are going through a difficult time, Chance UK is there to offer specialist support – building resilience, self-esteem and hope; preventing a lifetime of struggle. You don’t have to have a diagnosis and we won’t make you wait. We quickly match every child with an experienced youth worker to provide the support needed at home, at school and within communities.
What we do here brings hope into a child’s life, and reassurance for parents by showing them the things they can do to fill that hole, to bring light and colour back. We get our pots out, and we mix up all the new colours for children to try, we sit with them while they paint with the new colours and try things for the first time. When we find the right mix, we pop a lid on it and send a child on their way, knowing that at any point in their life that pot of colour is there for them to reopen and grab a little refreshment from it!
