Workshops

Over many years, Escaping Victimhood workshops took place at Woodbrooke in Birmingham, providing comfortable accommodation with good food, lovely gardens and a relaxing atmosphere. We are now moving to a new venue in Sheffield which we hope will offer similar tranquility and facilities.

Our workshops last 3 or 4 days, and are run by a team of skilled, professional facilitators who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to support participants.

At a workshop participants can:-

• Learn to understand the physical and emotional impact of trauma, and how you might have been affected.
• Take part in sessions on personal change which help to put the traumatic event in the context of their whole lives – past and future.
• Experience relaxing therapies such as massage and relaxation therapies.
• Use painting, photography and other creative activities to find new forms of expression.
• Spend time with people with a similar experience.
• Benefit from individual sessions with facilitators with the skills to help you relate the learning from the workshop to your experience.

10 – 12 people attend each workshop (residential), plus a follow-up day (non-residential) that takes place a few weeks later. “With all the treatments and care made available to us, we felt able to respond and open up, to unleash some of our pain that has been trapped within us for what seems like an eternity, in a safe and peaceful environment.” Workshop participant.

Who should attend?

The workshops are designed for adults affected by the trauma of serious crime. Recent workshops have been for people bereaved by murder, manslaughteror, or culpable road death, and victims of serious sexual assault and serious physical assaults.

If you think this sounds interesting, and would like more information, or if you would like to talk to someone who has been on the workshop, please give us a ring or send us an email. If you would like a programme to run in your area, please speak to your Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) about Escaping Victimhood.

Research on our programmes

Bath University carried out a 3 year longitudinal piece of research in partnership with EV into the residential workshop programmes. This research reported in 2018, see linked report. We believe that we are the only service for victims of crime, in the UK, to carry out this type of research on the service they deliver.