Take a look at a homeless person or a student with anger issues. Nine times out of 10 when you encounter these people you are judging them. In the Mansion students got trained on how to help people who has been through trauma.
“What’s wrong with them? No it’s what happened to them,” speaker Sean Dougherty said. There are men and women that come from a rough childhood with only one or no parents at all. Those same people could have struggled all their lives with no source of income or food
Growing up in those conditions will cause teenagers to rebel in school and not have any motivation at all. Children that grow up in foster homes are more likely to end up homeless as they enter their adult years.
Monday, March 16 at 7 p.m Linda Panetta held the Cross- Cultural Communications and Cultural Diversity awareness training. Caelan Woryk and Karima Dean, two students discussed their experience at a home for people who have been through trauma. This training will help them be able to handle people with trauma.
Panetta discussed how photography is a healing art and offered and overview of their multimedia program for at-risk and homeless you and adults. They will also be working with single teenage mom’s whose pregnancy was the result of sexual abuse.
“Trauma-informed Care is a strengths-based framework that is grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to the impact of trauma, that emphasizes physical, psychological and emotional safety for both providers and survivors, and that creates opportunities for survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment,” speaker Jones said while presenting his slides. Student Karima Dean talked about a guy she helped who went through many things throughout his life. He has been in jail, on drugs and homeless. He got help and now want to make a difference in his life. He would like to go back to school and reach towards being a social worker.
One thing that helps people that goes through these hard times in life is someone that genuinely cares and is willing to help them make a change. For the process to work they would have to want to help themselves as well. During the training the students that attended left with some tips to help them out.
When speaking to the ones who have dealt with trauma it is best to speak to them in a calm respectful voice. Give them their space so they will not feel threatened. Some might have went through abuse and you do not want to trigger anything.
You want to make them feel comfortable so look out for signs of discomfort. If they do not want to continue the conversation then respect that and give them their time. Most importantly also be honest with them because dishonesty could trigger some anger inside them.
It takes patience to deal with people like this but it is important to not judge them and to know there must be a story behind it. Some people feel as though they can not get help but there are so many resources for a helping hand. Linda Panetta has a website called Optical realities which shows through photography the kids and adults that have a hard life and how they can be helped.
