PAUL ROMANS

Zero responders are first at the scene in medical emergencies. They are almost always members of the public. YourStance is a collective of medical professionals who have developed a preventative educational project located in the space of trauma medicine. They aim to empower young people to make informed decisions by teaching lifesaving skills. Founded by Ana Waddington, RCN Nurse of the Year 2020, their mission is to eradicate needless deaths in our communities by having open conversations, sharing knowledge and skills between experienced healthcare professionals and young people at risk of serious youth violence.

This project is a document of workshops which offer zero responder training in areas such as haemorrhage control and basic life support. The trainings convey this information by incorporating medical prosthetics, everyday objects and performative staging. The sessions are delivered by volunteers in community centres, prisons, young offender institutions, youth centres and on the streets.

The wider impact of trauma is acknowledged at the beginning of each session. The educators make it clear the workshops are safe-spaces, while recognising the triggering content of the scenarios and the potential for re-traumatisation amongst those who may themselves have experienced violence.

This project is an in-progress collaboration. Critically informed by concepts of affect and assemblage, the work intends to expand the document into an interrogation of the connection between the psychological and corporeal in traumatic experience. Further, the work hopes to stay consistent with an approach which incorporates the uncertainty and ellipsis of the documentary form.

YourStance