In the Midst of Trauma: new all–island report calls for better support for practitioners
08 Oct 2026
Practitioners working ‘in the midst of trauma’ are carrying the cost of systems that don’t support them, new all–island report finds
Photography courtesy of Jonathan Porter, Press Eye Photography.
Corrymeela and TASC have launched a new all–island report exploring what happens when those who work for peace and reconciliation are themselves living in the midst of trauma, and what funders, policymakers and organisations can do about it.
On Thursday 8 October, Corrymeela and TASC (Think–tank for Action on Social Change) launched In the Midst of Trauma – A Collective Journey at Belfast City Hall, with Dr Lisa Cherry OBE in conversation about trauma–informed approaches to reconciliation and systems change.
The report began with a question that has received little attention in peace and reconciliation work: what happens when the people facilitating that work are themselves situated within the trauma they are trying to understand, respond to and transform?
A year–long collective journey
Between October 2025 and October 2026, practitioners from 17 community and voluntary organisations across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland came together in a partnership between Corrymeela and TASC. Their work spans peacebuilding and reconciliation, community development, housing and homelessness, refugee and asylum support, addiction, learning disability, legal advice and mental health.
Over four encounters between January and June 2026, including overnight residentials in January and June, they shared experience through group discussion, online sessions, a survey, reflective journals and a visual ‘ecosystem mapping’ process. The project tried to practise what it was exploring: building in care, peer support and enough safety for people to speak honestly about what they carry, rather than studying trauma–informed principles from a distance.
What practitioners told us
The report outlined systemic failures of organisations and policymakers working in the midst of trauma, to provide sufficient wellbeing and wraparound support for pracitioners working at the frontline of peace and reconciliation. The findings were stark:
- Only 7% felt that traumatic experiences are understood and addressed by service providers, while 33% said they are not understood and 60% said only sometimes.
- 87% said their organisation does not have the funding to meet the level of trauma it sees in the community.
- 60% said statutory and wider systemic responses very rarely meet communities’ trauma–related needs.
- 47% said their organisation provides no training or support on recognising trauma, and 60% said none on recognising secondary trauma among colleagues.
In group discussions and ecosystem maps, practitioners described feeling overwhelmed and, at times, invisible. They spoke of being expected to ‘do more with less’, of short–term funding and outcome targets that leave little room for relationship–building, and of the quiet cost of carrying other people’s stories.
The report’s central finding is that secondary trauma is systemic, not just individual. Its roots lie in structural inequality, the legacy of conflict and organisational cultures that prioritise output over wellbeing, so the answer cannot be left to individual resilience or self–care. Organisations, the report argues, cannot claim to be trauma–informed while maintaining structures that cause trauma.
The report is also clear about what is already working. Practitioners pointed to choice and voice for the people they support, to relationships built on trust, and to the power of collective support: shared inquiry and peer support were found to be strong antidotes to isolation and burnout.
What needs to change
The report makes recommendations for funders, policymakers and organisations, including that:
Funders require staff and volunteer wellbeing plans in grant applications, co–create wellbeing programmes with the organisations they fund, and provide longer funding periods.
Policymakers recognise trauma as a collective experience that needs community–led solutions, design trauma–informed systems, and strengthen collaboration between schools, justice and social services, including through new Provider Coordinator roles.
Organisations protect time for reflection and peer support, embed on–site professional mental health support, and provide trauma training for all staff and volunteers.
All stakeholders build a cross–sectoral, cross–border cohort of ambassadors to drive action and share good practice.
Read the report
In the Midst of Trauma – A Collective Journey was written by Dr Adeelia Goffe (TASC) and Denise Bradley (Corrymeela).
Download the full report here.
We are grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Ireland Funds Heart of the Community Fund for supporting this work; to facilitators Michael Gibbs, Damien McNally and Heidi Jackson, and visual facilitator Stephanie Heckman, who also created the cover art; and above all to the practitioners who gave their time, honesty and trust to this collective journey.
If you would like to talk with us about the findings, or about how your organisation might respond, please get in touch at press@corrymeela.org