Trauma-informed volunteering | Case Study

This project by Mettle Women was supported through Volunteering WA’s Volunteer Management Activity, funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services.

For Suzzy, volunteering felt impossible

Suzzy (name changed to protect privacy) joined Mettle Together after recovering from family and domestic violence and participating in Mettle’s employment pathways program. As she began to feel “a little bit like myself again,” she was looking for meaningful ways to reconnect with her community and give back. For Suzzy, Mettle Together felt like an opportunity to be alongside other women with lived experience, rebuild connection, and return some of the support she had received during her own recovery journey.

At the time she joined the program, Suzy was navigating the realities of being a busy single mother to a young child, alongside ongoing mental health and financial challenges. Although she had volunteered in the past, volunteering no longer felt possible or accessible. She described feeling disconnected from that part of herself and was searching for “something meaningful” and “something with purpose” to help guide her next chapter.

The Mettle Together Program

Mettle Together is intentionally designed as a trauma-informed and highly participatory program, supporting women with lived experience to reconnect, build confidence, and explore volunteering and peer leadership in safe and meaningful ways.

For Suzzy, the program initially felt unfamiliar, but deeply important. She recalls joining because it “sounded very meaningful,” even though she did not fully understand what to expect. Through the co-design sessions, trauma-informed mentorship workshops, and group volunteering activities, she found the experience to be supportive, informative, and engaging. The workshops created a sense of clarity and confidence, helping her see volunteering as an open, welcoming, and achievable space.

Along the way, Suzzy faced personal challenges, particularly related to her mental health. However, she describes the repeated invitations to participate as an important part of her journey, gentle reminders that she was welcome and capable. In her words, she “had to be brave and say yes,” trusting that participation would be beneficial, even when it felt difficult.

Outcomes

Suzzy has already experienced significant positive change through her involvement in Mettle Together. She describes the workshops as helping her better understand herself and her own journey, giving her “the little push” she needed to find the courage to step into something new. Most importantly, Suzzy found a renewed sense of purpose. Through volunteering, she began to recognise a strong interest in peer support work, both as a volunteer pathway and as a possible future career direction. This has helped shape new goals, something she says she “didn’t have before”, and has given her the confidence to begin taking meaningful next steps.

One particularly powerful outcome has been Suzzy’s ability to involve her young child in her volunteering journey. Participating together in a nature-based volunteer activity became a deeply meaningful shared experience, inspiring them to sign up for regular tree planting sessions every other month as an ongoing family commitment.

Key learnings

For Suzzy, this reflects one of the greatest strengths of Mettle Together: creating pathways for women to transform lived experience into meaningful community contribution through volunteering. By offering safe, flexible, and trauma-informed opportunities to participate, the program supports women not only to reconnect with others, but to rediscover purpose, improve wellbeing, and imagine new possibilities for their future.

“Mettle Together was the little push I needed to step into a more meaningful life experience.”

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