So a couple of weeks ago, we had the Pause celebration!
We had a two day celebration event. The first day was very much about the women… So we had hairdressers… they got their nails done… And it was just a really nice environment for them, just to be in be excited about celebrating something.
And so on day two, we had the actual celebration, which was a really lovely day as well. The women have essentially come into this service because they’ve experienced a loss and a removal of a child. And one of the questions I think that does come up is ‘what is it that we’re celebrating?’
These women have experienced some real significant trauma and that’s really hard to live with so it’s about celebrating how much they have grown and achieved with the time that they have worked within Pause. And there have been so many amazing successes. So it’s to celebrate that.
We all really wanted to recognise this. And so we held a very small short ceremony where we spoke about that. We had different speakers… we had poetry read out… So it was really lovely. And it was really, really touching. So it was a real kind of community collaborative event, which really celebrated this amazing work that the women have done.
I guess, in terms of kind of what they have achieved, it would be… engaging with organisations that previously you’re kind of too scared you know, I’m gonna have to talk about my stuff, I’m gonna have to open up and actually accessing the support that they need that’s out there in the real world. And that’s a huge challenge for women.
I guess when you look at somebody who’s experienced trauma and has experienced a loss of their child it’s often for really complex reasons that that’s happened. And so that can be around domestic violence that can be around homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse.
And some of these women have left really challenging relationships some of the women still might be in those relationships but have done a lot of work in themselves on how they manage risk and what they can do. Some of that work will be around having better relationships with their children. So they may not be in care of their children but they still might have contact. And actually, that’s one of the real significant things that we see in terms of outcomes for Pause – that they do have much healthier, better relationships, which is so important for that child.
The current community we’re working with – Community 3 – are now starting coming to an end. And if you imagine that Pause works really intensively with a woman for up to 18 months and we’ve been part of that change for that woman where she’s opened up and taken risks and done scary things.
And endings are really challenging because we’re now moving away. And for a woman that’s going to be incredibly, potentially scary and challenging – you’re in this world alone. And so transitions and endings are really important for the team that we do them well.
We transition out of this relationship so that they still have those skills and still have those contacts and they still use the skills that they’ve learned in this time.
And we’re also now with a transition period coming to a point of working with new women. And we’re starting to engage women for our fourth community. So it’s a really exciting time – but it’s acknowledging a transition which is always hard.
