Our Trauma Ambassador Group are passionate about ensuring that services have an understanding of trauma and that services use that knowledge to improve care for those living with trauma. Therefore, we are delighted to announce that our ‘Expressions of Trauma’ exhibition is being hosted next at the University of Suffolk as part of the Purple Hearts Awards 2025.
The Purple Hearts Awards are an opportunity to celebrate excellence in Trauma Informed Practice, making the event a perfect fit for our exhibition. The awards are run by Survivors in Transition, a Suffolk based organisation supporting anyone over the age of 18 who has experienced sexual abuse in their childhood. On their flyer, Survivors in Transition describe the awards:
“We all come across trauma in one form or another in our work or personal lives. We want to work together, support each other and highlight, celebrate and encourage examples of excellent trauma informed practice. This way we can nurture the potential of vicarious resilience in the system.”
Our exhibition will be open to the public from 22nd February to 1st March 2025 at the Waterfront Building, University of Suffolk, Neptune Quay, Ipswich, IP4 1QJ. The campus is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and is accessible to the public as well as the university students and staff. The exhibition will also be on display as part of the awards night on Wednesday 26th February between 4-7pm – you can find more details here about attending the awards.
Amongst the art on display will be pieces by local artist Matthew Johnson, who has previously displayed works at the Colchester and Jaywick instalments of the exhibition. A new piece of art for this instalment is ‘Reduce. Reuse. Recycle’ (shown on the right). Matthew described this piece:
“Post-trauma, the process of healing continues with a returning of hopefulness for the future. This piece extends that idea to ask what that may look like for others in our society. For those suffering with climate change anxiety, simply seeing positive use of resources can help relieve these tensions. Old unwanted bicycles are used to support and erect a turbine (built with a bicycle wheel and 63 recycled tin cans). This turbine can be rotated by hand using the remaining pedal.”
Sharon Westfield de Cortez, Information and Guidance Manager at Healthwatch Essex, says:
“I am delighted to announce that our Expressions of Trauma exhibition, hosted by the Healthwatch Essex Trauma Ambassador Group, is returning later this month. The exhibition offers a wide range of creative artworks by people from across the county, with the aim of raising awareness and empathy of trauma, as well as being an empowering and positive experience for exhibitors. I am sure that you will find it an insightful and highly worthwhile experience.”
Signposting and support literature will be available on site, along with details on how to access information and guidance via Healthwatch Essex and our partners at Healthwatch Suffolk.