This week Unpacked gets into the topic of trauma at an individual and neighbourhood level: what is it, who does it effect and how does it manifest?
Our guest Heather Williams, the CEO of Knowle West Health Park, is someone who speaks wisely both from a personal and professional perspective on how trauma, passing through generations, can affect not only people but entire communities.
Heather has spearheaded her organisation through what’s been a turbulent and heartbreaking time on the south Bristol estate, in the aftermath of the tragic 2024 murders of young boys Max Dixon and Mason Rist at the hands of a group from neighbouring Hartcliffe. The two children had been wrongly identified as being responsible for throwing bricks at a house in Hartcliffe area earlier on the day they died.
Heather and her team have provided space for healing for many local people affected by this. Her work is about getting alongside the community and listening – not judging, not fixing, just supporting and holding space for people, including for her staff in what can be a challenging environment for them.
As someone whose life and work bridge the local postcode divide, longtime Hartcliffe resident Heather’s approach has also been informed by her own 30-year journey to break the chains of abuse she experienced as a child. Bringing up her daughter as a young single mother, she became the first member of her family to go to university before moving into community work and then becoming the leader of a local organisation doing essential work around health in its widest sense.
In another unmissable episode of Bristol Unpacked, she and Neil get deep into questions of harm, healing, and how people can be empowered to lead their own communities and tell their own stories. Enjoy.
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