Compassionate Leeds: Navigating Difficult Conversations with Compassion

Theme: Navigating Difficult Conversations with Compassion

How do we navigate difficult conversations with compassion whilst holding in mind the children, young people and families we are supporting?

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.

Format:
🔥 Campfire Stories – Storytellers will share reflections on how they stayed compassionate, what supported or challenged them, what they learned, and how the experience shaped their approach going forward.
🎙️ Panel Discussion – The same contributors will join a facilitated conversation to deepen the dialogue and explore shared themes.
🤝 Collaborative Framework Building – Together, we’ll begin shaping a trauma-informed conversation framework based on shared experiences. You will be asked to complete a pre-event survey. The survey is optional but encouraged - your insights will help shape the session.

Confirmed Contributors:

• Dr Alison Share – Consultant Paediatrician and Designated Doctor for Looked After Children
• Eve Maloba – Founder of Complete Woman CIC
• Ian St Rose – Project Director, North West Area Inclusion Partnership
• More contributors to be announced

This session will focus on difficult conversations — whether with children, young people, families, colleagues, or professionals from partner organisations. These may be conversations you’ve been on either side of — giving or receiving.

Some contributors may share from personal or professional lived experience. We honour these stories with care and confidentiality.

Please note that this event will be recorded.

Who is it for?

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.

Compassionate Leeds Community of Practice Objectives:

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.

🤝 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.