A long-term professional support program for people moving forward from childhood adversity.

The gap we respond to

There are many brilliant social mobility programs that support underrepresentation in particular sectors. The Wayfinder Network focuses on another barrier: the occurrence of childhood trauma and the absence of a stable family support system.

This can create a hidden form of inequality. It can affect confidence, access to advice, professional expectations, applications, interviews, work experience, emotional resilience and the ability to imagine a future beyond what someone has had to survive.

Adverse Childhood Experiences

The Network is especially focused on young people who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences, often called ACEs. This may include abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, serious family instability, bereavement, care experience, displacement, rejection, or growing up around addiction, imprisonment, severe illness, coercive control or unsafe caregiving.

ACEs and childhood trauma often overlap with more familiar forms of disadvantage, including poverty, inequality, disability, discrimination and underrepresentation. The additional hurdle is the trauma, instability and isolation of what someone has already had to live through.

Hidden network inequality

A young person may be talented, ambitious and capable, but still lack the informal guidance that quietly shapes professional success.

• What career options are open to me?
• How do I approach a professional email?
• What should I wear to an interview?
• How do I prepare for an internship, vacation scheme or first job?
• Is this workplace normal?
• How do I recover from a rejection?

These questions may seem small, but they accumulate. The Wayfinder Network exists because no one should have to figure out every step alone.

Why Harbors matter

Isolation is one of the quietest but most serious issues for young people moving forward from childhood trauma, estrangement, care experience, displacement or family instability. Even when someone is safe, studying or working, they may still feel that very few people understand the specific path they are trying to navigate.

Harbors are peer-to-peer community spaces designed to bring people with shared or niche experiences together. They may connect people around experiences such as estrangement, care experience, refugee background, being the child of refugees, bereavement, coercive family environments or other forms of childhood adversity. Harbors are intended to reduce isolation, build trust and give participants a space where they can learn, ask questions and move forward without having to explain everything from the beginning.