Category: News

Three leading specialist charities — Staffordshire Women’s Aid, Pathway Project and SARAC came together to deliver the first-ever Tri-Wellbeing Day, a full-day conference dedicated to supporting the wellbeing, resilience, and professional strength of their teams.

Hosted at Uttoxeter Race Course, the event brought together all staff and some volunteers working across domestic abuse and sexual violence services for a carefully curated programme blending restorative activities, professional learning, and cross-organisational connection. It marks a significant milestone in the partnership between the three organisations, who collectively support thousands of survivors across Staffordshire each year.

A Day Designed for the People Who Support Others Every Day

The day opened with a welcome breakfast, followed by an introductory address and networking activities designed to help colleagues connect with peers they may not normally meet. The programme featured an inspiring opening ‘honest’ address by Jess Phillips, before moving into focused sessions exploring workplace culture, emotional resilience, and the challenges of trauma-exposed work.

Participants took part in a Sound Bath session with Verity, yoga breathing with Sara Mae, and a motivational talk delivered by Peggy, alongside opportunities to reflect, share experiences, and build supportive relationships across agencies.

Interactive “table toys,” wellbeing-themed activities, and a collaborative prize challenge helped create a relaxed, nurturing atmosphere, encouraging staff to pause, breathe, and reconnect with one another.

Recognising the Critical Importance of Staff Wellbeing

Frontline workers in domestic abuse and sexual violence services carry out some of the most emotionally demanding work in the charity sector. They support individuals living with trauma, fear, crisis, and long-term harm, often while navigating complex systems to secure safety and justice for survivors.

This work is vital, but it also takes an emotional toll.

Investing in staff wellbeing is not optional; it is essential.
For charities operating in trauma-informed environments, staff wellbeing directly affects:

• Service quality — emotionally supported staff can provide more grounded, consistent support
• Safety — both staff and service users benefit when workers are well-rested, regulated, and resourced
• Retention — wellbeing reduces burnout and turnover in an already challenging recruitment landscape
• Resilience — organisations are stronger when their people feel valued, connected, and cared for
• Partnership working — cross-agency relationships grow when teams feel confident and supported

The Tri-Wellbeing Day was created to acknowledge this reality and to offer staff dedicated time to rest, restore, and feel appreciated.

A Shared Commitment Across Three Specialist Organisations

In a joint statement, Staffordshire Women’s Aid, Pathway Project, and SARAC said:

“Our teams carry a huge emotional load to protect and empower survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. Their work is powerful, skilled and often invisible. This conference is our way of recognising their dedication and giving them the space to pause and be cared for. Staff wellbeing is fundamental to the quality and sustainability of the services we provide. When our staff are supported, survivors are better supported too.”

The three organisations emphasised that wellbeing is not a one-day activity, but a pillar of long-term organisational culture — something they are committed to championing together.

Strengthening a United Front for Survivors in Staffordshire

The Tri-Wellbeing Day also highlighted the increasing strength of partnership working across the county. By bringing staff together from three specialist services, the event strengthened collaborative bonds and helped build a more cohesive network of support for those experiencing abuse.

With the positive feedback from attendees and organisers alike, all three charities hope to explore future joint initiatives to continue nurturing a healthy, resilient and well-supported workforce.

Imagine you have just fled a violent relationship with jut the clothes on you back and your 2 children. You have just been welcomed to a Women’s refuge  that has given you  safe sanctuary and a place to heal from the abuse you have suffered. You feel that you have failed your children, that you should have left sooner. You are sad that they have been dragged out of their home and left all of their belongings, their toys and much loved pets behind. You feel like a failure.

The staff support you find your confidence, they support you to deal with the trauma you have endured and support you to heal. Staff support you to find a place for your children at a local school and they are immediately assessed. 

The sad fact is that children who live in a refuge, even for a short period of time have  lower attainment than a child who is not in refuge. They are more likely to have mental health issues and challenging behaviour, they are more likely to develop health conditions than children who do not live in refuge and statistically have lower attainment in later life.

We had to do something about this.

Pathway Project Staffordshire, Local Soroptimists and Refuge in Literacy came together to deliver a fantastic project  working with women in our refuge. 

The premise is simple, Refuge in Literacy is a National Charity that delivers tools to support women to encourage reading with their children from birth. The tools are simple to use and  easy to weave into everyday life and give mums the confidence to read with their children. It helps mum to build confidence and rebuild that special relationship with her child. 

The local Soroptimists supported the project with volunteers who worked 121 with the women in our refuge to ensure they had confidence to use the tools with their children. We were blown away by the results. Let me tell you about Polly and Oliver.

Polly came to refuge with 2 children , Oliver age 8 and Teagan age 5. She had endured years of physical abuse, coercive control, financial abuse and emotional abuse.  Pathway Project supported her with a home, 121 support and counselling amongst other things and found school spaces for Oliver and Teagan. Oliver had challenging behaviour, he found it hard to  concentrate and shouted at Mum that he was allergic to books! Oliver found it hard to deal with the huge emotions he was feeling. We supported Oliver with 121 support from a children’s worker to help him deal with the trauma he had witnessed. Polly was devastated when she attended school to be told Oliver was assessed and had a reading age of 6 years old. Polly already felt that she had let her children down, this really made her feel a failure.

We knew Polly was not a failure and we knew we could support her.  Polly came to a Refuge In Literacy meeting  and met Louie a wonderful volunteer from the Soroptimist. Louie worked with Polly to get to know her, build her confidence and shared some techniques around everyday ways to encourage literacy,  bedtime routines to support reading and suggested different mediums to interest Oliver in reading. Polly persevered, she worked really well with Louie and Oliver responded. Six months later Oliver was re-assessed by School. His reading age was now assessed as that of a 10 year old.

Louie, Polly and Oliver are elated and shared with me a video of Oliver reading his favourite book, a far cry from the Oliver who shouted that he was allergic to books! this change in Oliver was supported by the refuge in literacy project . A project that is literally changing lives.

Pathway Project could not support Oliver and Polly to instigate this amazing change without the brilliant resources form Refuge in Literacy and The Soroptimist volunteers who give their time so freely. This change is literally life changing for Oliver whose future now is much brighter. Its also changed Polly who now is much more confident in her own abilities.

If you are interested in supporting this amazing project you can make a donation by following the below link to our website, we use donations to fund book parcels and book tokens so children like Oliver who find a new love of reading can go and choose a book for themselves.  

Make a donation to Pathway Project

If you have a few hours to give and want to support a mum to understand how to use the resources so they can rebuild that special relationship with their child get in touch by email to  talktoeve@pathway-project.co.uk and volunteer your time for this project.