Trauma-Informed Training on Forced Adoption

Portable applied a rigorous, trauma-informed design methodology to develop the training, ensuring the process was ethical, co-designed, and grounded in lived experience.

The project began with an in-depth discovery phase, including extensive stakeholder mapping and a literature review to understand the impacts of forced adoption and current practice gaps across the health and allied health sectors. Central to the process was a survivor-led co-design approach. We facilitated workshops and one-on-one interviews with people affected by forced adoption, care professionals, policy experts, and subject matter specialists. These sessions shaped the tone, content structure, and learning pathways, embedding safety and empathy throughout.

The team engaged cultural safety consultants to guide how lived experience could be respectfully shared while minimising retraumatisation. Prototypes were iteratively tested with stakeholders to validate content clarity, emotional impact, and usability. The visual and interaction design prioritised simplicity, warmth, and accessibility, incorporating visual motifs and language that avoided clinical detachment while supporting user engagement.

The final training module was implemented as an online, self-paced learning platform, compatible across desktop and mobile devices. It includes multimedia storytelling, interactive learning checks, and practical guidance for applying trauma-informed principles. A structured delivery plan, including facilitator support resources and a learner workbook, enhances sector-wide adoption.

Through this process, the project not only met but exceeded the brief. It moved beyond awareness-raising to deliver a tangible, scalable solution that shifts professional behaviour and improves survivor outcomes. The result is a sector-ready training tool that honours the voices of people affected by forced adoption while raising the standard of care across Australia.

This project exemplifies good design by seamlessly integrating functionality, accessibility, aesthetics, and safety into a purpose-built digital experience that advances trauma-informed care.

From its foundations, the training was designed to be not only informative but emotionally safe; a critical consideration when addressing the complex and deeply personal impacts of forced adoption. Accessibility was a priority throughout. The training complies with WCAG 2.1 AA standards, includes alt text and keyboard navigation, and avoids distressing visual or auditory triggers.

The platform is fully responsive and designed for low-friction usability across desktop and mobile devices, ensuring professionals in diverse settings can access it. The visual design balances warmth and professionalism, using soft palettes, gentle typography, and intuitive navigation to create a calm and respectful learning environment. Interactive components, including scenario-based learning and reflection prompts, deepen user engagement while reinforcing core concepts. Each element was carefully tested with target users to ensure clarity, emotional resonance, and relevance.

The project sets a benchmark for design excellence by proving that trauma-informed principles can drive not only ethical service delivery but also exceptional user experience. The modular architecture of the training supports scalability and future localisation, reflecting sustainable design thinking. Importantly, this project demonstrates the transformative potential of design when it is co-created with those directly affected by the issue it seeks to address. By centring lived experience, the training elevates the voice of survivors in shaping policy and practice.

As a Victorian-led project with national reach and global relevance, it stands as a model for how professional design can influence systemic change. It communicates the benefits of investing in high-quality, human-centered design not just as a functional tool, but as a vehicle for justice, healing, and social impact.

This project addresses a deeply legitimate and under-recognised problem: the lack of trauma-informed understanding among professionals who interact with people affected by forced adoption. While resources on forced adoption exist, few — if any — have translated this knowledge into a structured, emotionally safe, and scalable training solution designed for practical application across the health and support sectors.

The innovation lies in its approach. Rather than taking a clinical or purely educational stance, the training was co-designed with people with lived experience, setting a new precedent for how survivor-informed content can be delivered through digital platforms. Every stage of development, from tone of voice to information architecture, was shaped to meet the emotional and professional realities of both survivors and practitioners.

Ground-breaking elements include the careful integration of reflective learning techniques and survivor narratives in ways that preserve dignity and avoid retraumatisation. The design introduces emotionally calibrated user flows that guide learners through sensitive content without overwhelm; a nuanced approach rarely seen in online education. In doing so, it reframes the user’s role: from passive learner to active, empathetic participant. This is also one of the first national e-learning programs in Australia that specifically applies trauma-informed design principles to historical injustice.

Its modular structure and adaptive design allow it to be updated, scaled across sectors, or adapted for other contexts of trauma, including institutional abuse or displacement, representing a platform for future innovation. User-centered by design, the project responds to a spectrum of needs: those of survivors seeking respectful treatment, of practitioners requiring practical tools, and of government bodies aiming for systemic impact. In bringing these together through ethical and imaginative design, the project offers a blueprint for digital training that heals, empowers, and transforms.

This project delivers significant and lasting social impact by transforming how health and support professionals across Australia understand and engage with people affected by forced adoption. By increasing practitioner awareness, empathy, and trauma-informed practice, the training contributes directly to more respectful, safe, and healing interactions; helping to address decades of institutional harm and restore trust in care systems.

The Department of Health now has a scalable, sector-ready training resource that can be embedded nationally. Early feedback has demonstrated positive shifts in practitioner attitudes and confidence, highlighting the projects capacity to change behaviour and uplift practice at scale. As a digital-only solution, the training eliminates physical production waste and travel-based delivery, aligning with low-impact and resource-efficient principles. The investment in professional design was pivotal to the projects success.

Through co-design, ethical UX, and inclusive visual and content strategies, the outcome is not just functional — it’s deeply human. The platform is adaptable for future use across other trauma contexts, increasing its value and relevance over time. By reducing reliance on in-person training and enabling asynchronous learning, it also offers long-term cost and carbon savings for government and service providers.

While not directly tied to a Circular Economy product lifecycle, the training aligns with its broader principles: reducing material waste, using sustainable digital infrastructure, and regenerating social systems by investing in human wellbeing.

This project enhances Victoria’s reputation as a leader in purpose-driven and trauma-informed design. It demonstrates how design can play a central role in public policy, education, and healing, setting a benchmark nationally and internationally. By embedding lived experience at its core and using professional design to turn policy goals into practical, ethical outcomes, this project exemplifies the value of investing in Victoria’s vibrant design sector.

While this project exists in a digital format, it exemplifies circular design thinking by embedding sustainability, adaptability, and longevity into every aspect of its delivery. The training was intentionally designed to minimise environmental impact, avoid waste, and operate entirely online, eliminating the need for printed materials, travel, or venue-based delivery associated with traditional training formats.

The modular structure of the course allows for efficient updates and reuse, ensuring it can evolve with future policy, research, or community feedback without the need for redesign. This adaptability extends its lifespan and reduces the need for repeated resource-intensive redevelopment.

The platform was built with accessible, open web technologies to ensure low-bandwidth compatibility, reducing server load and supporting digital equity for users in remote or low-resource settings. Sustainability was also embedded into the project’s ethical and social dimensions. Co-designing with people with lived experience ensured that the training supports long-term cultural change and not just short-term knowledge transfer. By investing in professional trauma-informed design, the project regenerates trust and reduces harm in service systems, contributing to a more resilient and compassionate society.

Although not a material product, the project aligns with key Circular Economy principles:  Designing out waste by replacing resource-heavy training with a reusable digital model Optimising for longevity through modularity and content flexibility Creating positive system impact by addressing intergenerational trauma and supporting institutional reform.

This project showcases how digital service design, when done thoughtfully and ethically, can extend the principles of sustainability into the realms of education, policy, and social healing. It highlights Victoria’s leadership in applying circular thinking beyond products, using professional design to promote environmental responsibility, emotional safety, and societal wellbeing.