2023: A Year in Review
As we approach the end of the year, we have been reflecting on 2023 at One Small Thing. It has been an exciting year for us as an organisation, the year when we opened Hope Street and sustained and grew our vital support to the justice and community sectors.
This year we have:
Opened Hope Street, our residential community for women and their children in Hampshire. On 27th June 2023 we were delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales to officially open Hope Street. During the visit, Her Royal Highness met our team, was taken on a tour of the new buildings, and was introduced to supporters and partners who have driven the programme of work from design to build over the past six years. Importantly, she met women who were consulted as part of the design and development phase and learned about the unique support residents will receive. Since we opened our doors at the end of June, our team’s focus has been on welcoming women and our first mum and toddler to Hope Street. Learn more about what’s been happening at Hope Street over the last year.
Supported staff and residents in prisons, through regular training and support meetings. This year we restarted Healing Trauma, our trauma informed, peer facilitated programme for women in prison.
‘I found your passion and dedication to be so powerful in the room, and it was really lovely to be in a space for a whole day where someone else was also holding the hope. The training has invigorated me, it has ‘topped me up’ to carry on.’ Prison staff member who attended our training.
Championed trauma informed and gender responsive work through our trauma informed training and workshops in the community. We were especially excited to launch our brand-new Trauma Informed Team Leadership Programme – a 6 month programme for senior leaders. You can find dates and details for upcoming courses here.
Grown our Working with Trauma Quality Mark. In 2023 we have had 21 organisations embark on the Quality Mark journey, and awarded five Silver and 11 Bronze Awards to recognise trauma informed practice. Learn more about our Working with Trauma Quality Mark here.
Redeveloped our podcast and brought you two brand new series. Our spring series took a detailed look at motherhood experiences in the justice system, and our most recent series explored how we can create healing spaces for women in the justice system and beyond. Explore our new series here.
Shared the voice of lived experience through working with our Women’s Involvement Advisor to publish a regular blog. Read our blog here.
Continued to grow our policy, research and communications work, responding to multiple policy consultations and holding a parliamentary event to launch research on our learning so far from designing and building Hope Street.
Thank you to everyone who has generously donated or awarded grant funding to One Small Thing this year. Your support is helping us to drive forward our vital mission to redesign the justice system for women and their children and realise our vision for a more trauma informed justice system. We look forward to working together with you for even greater impact in 2024.