We met in 2018 as parent and Specialist Support Worker and decided to turn our experience into something to help other families in June 2020, registering as a charity in December of that year.
We have benefitted from both receiving and giving practical, trauma-responsive support at home and it has made an enormous difference to our lives. Sarah’s family received the support and stability they all needed from Jade’s trauma-responsive care, and Jade received training and experience to enhance her career development as well as a fulfilling role.
To start with we offered recruitment support to families trying to find trauma-responsive childcare. We have since added services such as benefits advice and comprehensive training. Everything we do comes from a place of deeply understanding the needs of the families we work with.
We work with individual families as well as organisations supporting adoptive, SGO and kinship care families. These include Regional and Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Children’s Services, Children’s Disability Teams, SEND teams and other charities and organisations.
Working in partnership with existing teams around a family gives the best support and we like to work collaboratively with other professionals. We welcome enquiries from families themselves and from professionals referring them.
We also work with the professionals supporting a family to learn about trauma-responsive ways of understanding and helping a child. Perhaps you are a PA already working with a family or a TA in a school working 1:1 with a traumatised child. You might be a Support Worker, Youth Worker, Mentor or Group Leader and feel as if you need to better understand the children and young people you’re working with. We can offer you training and a regular reflective space to support you and develop your practice.
We use the DDP therapeutic model to underpin our organisational approach, training and support. DDP stands for Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and is a treatment that brings together attachment theory, what we understand about developmental trauma, the neurobiology of trauma, attachment and caregiving, intersubjectivity theory and child development. Find out more here: About DDP – DDP Network
This model informs how we interact with everyone, and how we offer support to professionals, parents, and the children our Specialist Support Workers look after. We offer DDP PACE training to our Specialist Support Workers and these trainings are also open to other professionals interested in using this approach DDP PACE Training – DDP Network.
The Belay Foundation is a charity helping families whose children have suffered early life trauma.
Registered Charity in England and Wales No. 1192653
© 2024 The Belay Foundation. All rights reserved.
