Compassionate Leeds: Navigating Difficult Conversations with Compassion

Compassionate Leeds Trauma Informed Community of Practice

Date: Monday 27th October, 2025

Time: 2.30-4.30pm

Online via Microsoft Teams

This Community of Practice is open to anyone who supports children, young people and families in Leeds, in all sectors, whether that’s as a volunteer, a practitioner, an operational manager or a strategic leader. The aim is to bring together people, from a broad variety of personal and professional backgrounds, with a common interest in developing trauma informed practice, to share experiences, perspectives, learning and good practice across Leeds.

The community of practice is for people on every part of the journey in becoming trauma informed, whether you are new to the idea or whether you have been implementing trauma informed principles into your practice for a period of time.

Theme: Navigating Difficult Conversations with Compassion

There’s a common misconception that trauma-informed practice means avoiding difficult conversations. In reality, it’s about creating the conditions for high support and high challenge—where honesty, accountability, and compassion can coexist. This session will explore how we stay grounded, curious, and kind during the most challenging conversations in our work.

Campfire stories: Invited speakers from across different sectors will share personal reflections on how they have navigated difficult conversations with compassion. Through storytelling, they will offer insight into the emotional and relational challenges involved, alongside practical strategies that have supported them in maintaining a trauma-informed approach.

Connect, develop and influence: A space for collective for Community of Practice participants to connect with other participants, and if they want to, share their own reflections and experiences on how they have navigated difficult conversations with young people, families and colleagues and explore how compassion has shaped these interactions and reflect on how you would like to develop your trauma-informed practice going forward.

Compassionate Leeds Community of Practice Objectives:🤝 Connect – Within our community of practice, participants, from across the partnership of support for children and families, will collectively support and build relationships with one another, and create new ways of thinking and shared language around trauma informed practice.📚 Develop – Within our community of practice, participants will deepen their understanding and application of trauma informed practice and take away tangible ways to embed it in their work by sharing learning, ideas and stories of success, and by reflecting with people who are doing similar work.🌍 Influence – As a community of practice, participants will cultivate curiosity around trauma informed approaches in our work with children and young people and we will become a voice of influence around individual, organisational and system level change as part of the development of the Compassionate Leeds programme.

Who is it for?Anyone working with children, young people and families in Leeds — in any role or sector — who wants to strengthen the culture of care in their team or organisation.

With thanks to the Compassionate Leeds Community of Practice planning group for their time and collective thoughts and ideas for this session.