Context: Cork Simon Community offers care, accommodation and support for almost 1200 people annually. The current unprecedented housing crisis is pushing people into homelessness and preventing people from leaving homelessness. With increasing demands on resources those who are often the most vulnerable struggle to navigate systems and services and thus consideration of service design and delivery is required in order to maximise a service user’s ability to engage effectively. There is a growing body of research that argues that trauma informed care (TIC) improves outputs for both staff and the people they serve.

Aims & Method: The aim of this project is threefold; (a) establish the prevalence of trauma within Cork Simon Community (b) assess Cork Simon Community’s capacity for Trauma Informed Care (c) ascertain the implications of the findings for clinical and non-clinical interventions within homeless settings. This aim was addressed by completing three research studies. Trauma awareness training was also delivered to 120+ staff and data regarding capacity for TIC was collected at 6 training dates.

1. Establish service users’ levels of early childhood trauma (ACE’s)

2. Establish staff/volunteers levels of vicarious trauma (ProQOL)

3. Complete agency trauma informed assessment