West Lothian College deliver training to help staff be more ACEs aware
Staff at West Lothian College have recently taken part in a range of activities to ensure that they have a good base understanding to support students who have Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
Kevin Neary, one of the founders of the organisation Aid & Abet and a member of the West Lothian ACEs Hub was a keynote speaker at the recent Principal’s conference at the college.
Kevin spoke movingly of his own personal journey from pre-birth childhood adversity to addiction and time in prison to redemption. Kevin shared that he had recently completed an SVQ at West Lothian College commenting that it was very likely that his assessor would not have been aware of his personal journey. He said:
"It was a pleasure to be able to share my story with the staff of West Lothian College. To be able to speak where I had recently completed an SVQ was a very rewarding experience."
In addition to the keynote speech from Kevin, staff also engaged in sessions delivered by the college’s in-house Children’s Hearing Scotland team.
During these sessions staff were shown a documentary called ‘Resilience’ in order to initiate conversations surrounding how traumatic experiences can go on to influence an individual later in life, causing potential health and medical issues.