The Nelson Trust

Who we are

Women’s Community Services

The Nelson Trust’s Women’s Community Services span across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Bristol, and Wales. We also have a first-of-its-kind Women’s Centre inside HMP Eastwood Park. Services are trauma-informed, gender responsive, and provide holistic support for women and their families.

Our strength-based and collaborative approach views women as human beings first – not just someone with needs and risks, but someone with strengths, interests, personal experiences and goals.

Each of our clients has their own Keyworker who works with them to co-create a support plan to address their needs. This is achieved through one-to-one sessions, group work and access to specialist service.

Our services are underpinned by a comprehensive support system and methodologies that include assertive outreach, women’s centres, advocacy and support approaches, custody liaison and diversion, prison in-reach and residential treatment.

Throughout the week our Women’s Centres offer a full timetable of activities, including accredited educational courses, workshops, drop-ins and groups, which cover wellbeing, life skills and creative activities. Most of our centres also have onsite creche facilities, showers, washing machines, a garden and cafe, that are all available for clients to utilise.

Residential Rehabilitation Treatment

Our residential treatment programme is one of the longest established abstinence-based services in the UK. Since 1985 we have provided trauma-informed residential rehabilitation to clients across fifty nationwide referral pathways. Our four dedicated residential houses support up to forty-four people at any one time to achieve abstinence from substance misuse. The programme’s success in helping our clients recover from addiction and alcohol abuse has provided it with a national reputation for excellence and innovation.

Our service delivery model is based on the Recovery Capital model delivered through a trauma informed approach. What this means is that the service user identifies their strengths and needs and co-creates a care plan with their Recovery Worker. This informs a tailored, personal timetable of treatment, including structured programme of weekly 1:1 sessions, educative sessions and group work to support, encourage, motivate, and promote recovery principles and healthy-living. Our deep understanding of trauma is interwoven into all we do including the impact of adverse childhood experiences and the unhealthy management of trauma through substance misuse. We feel that emotional and physical safety is essential for clients to engage with treatment meaningfully.

In providing emotional and physical safety we prioritise welcoming environments, safe settings, enhancement of recovery capital, and development of a sense of wellbeing, belonging, and a solid framework of boundaries.

Hub Enterprises

Recovery is a journey. The Hubs serve the recovering community by providing:

• Therapeutic ways to explore the recovery journey, for example, through art, writing and alternative therapies.
• Training in life skills to help people get back on their feet and look after themselves.
• Education to help people return to work.

Our enterprises operate with the aim of becoming self-sustaining. Not just financially sustainable but also through the development of a strong, confident and effective service user-led community.

Our culture and values

Trauma Informed Approach

Our trauma-informed approach to recovery is the golden thread that underpins all of our work here at The Nelson Trust. This is a place that clients can build trust, develop choices, work closely with others, and ultimately make their own decisions. We support our clients with compassion and sensitivity.

We have continually developed our trauma informed services utilising the principles of choice, empowerment, trust, collaboration and safety to support our clients to break free from trauma and addiction and work towards fulfilling their potential.

In 2017, we introduced our Becoming Trauma Informed Guide Team who champion the principles and ensure all our services, staff, and volunteers have the tools they need to become trauma responsive. 

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The Nelson Trust recognises that there are harsh inequalities within society, some of which have been made more apparent throughout Covid-19. The trust understands that fundamental change is needed at every level in society. In response to this, we have started an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion steering group with staff and client representation from across the organisation.

The group reflects on our current practice, policies, and service approaches by asking how equitable, diverse, and inclusive The Nelson Trust is as an employer and service provider. The group meets every six weeks and has so far identified areas for improvement, areas to reinforce, and relevant changes to practice that are needed. For example, the group has worked to encourage recruitment of a more diverse team of staff, addressed Halal meat and mosque attendance needs prior to admission, arranged lessons for staff and clients to learn sign language, undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment of the buildings and services we provide, and participated in Project TILI (a research project aiming to identify women and girls who are at risk of modern slavery).