Benjamin Perks

Benjamin Perks works for the UN in New York and is a global advocate on human rights, child development and protection and prevention of violence and trauma. He grew up in care in Birmingham and London in the UK and served in UN human rights diplomacy and humanitarian roles in many countries including Afghanistan, India and Montenegro. He coordinated the Back-to-School campaign in the Northern Afghanistan which brought 3 million children, including 1 million girls, into school-most of them for the first times in their lives. He has led work on demobilization of child solders, deinstitutionalization of children in state care, addressing child poverty, pre-school expansion and disability inclusion. Ben is Senior Fellow at the Jubilee Centre at the University of Birmingham in the UK, which researches education policy on character, social and emotional development of children and an Associate Faculty Member at Oxford University Department of Social Policy and Innovation. His first book, Trauma Proof: Healing, Attachment and The Science of Prevention is described as ‘visionary’ by both Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score) and Bruce Perry (What Happened to You), Trauma Proof is a story-driven tour of everything we know about child trauma and its lasting and costly impact on individuals and society