Highlights from our first Experts by Experience "Train the Trainer" session at Lillias Gillies House

Earlier this month, four staff and four residents from our Lilias Gillies House, our CQC-regulated high-support residential recovery community in Croydon, attended our first Experts by Experience 'Train the Trainer' session.

Facilitated by our Lived Experience Coordinator, Vikki H, this half-day training covered designing and facilitating online and in-person training, learning theories and considerations, and support for facilitators with Lived Experience.

Resident training is a key part of our Expert by Experience programme, made possible thanks to generous funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, which aims to empower residents to shape decisions that affect their lives through enhanced involvement in the design, delivery, and evaluation of our services, training, and communications. The project also helps residents build confidence and skills they can carry with them after leaving our communities and create a peer-support network to help our residents thrive.

This Train the Trainer session follows our first training course, "An Introduction to Trauma-Informed Practice" which we delivered in December for residents who were about to move into roles in the NHS or were considering volunteering.

The training covered topics including the definition, prevalence, and impact of trauma, models for understanding and working with trauma, and the impact of working with trauma.

Participants in the Train the Trainer session reported a positive experience, highlighting the inclusive and interactive nature of the training. When asked about their key takeaways, participants included grounding techniques when presenting, the importance of boundaries, and how to be confident and engaging as their key learning.

"Practical examples and experiences really brought [the training] to life and made it make sense in practice" Train the Trainer participant

We are now offering the Train the Trainer programme to staff and residents at all our communities as we continue to develop and expand our Expert by Experience training offer. If you have any questions about our Experts by Experience Programme, please email Vikki.