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STAR Program Expands to Serve Youth

L. to r.: Lou Furman from New Orleans, Ebun Abeni James of Sierra Leone, Tamara Maslovaric from Serbia and Jeff Mansfield from New York City do a role play representing Truth, Justice, Mercy and Peace - all so much needed to break the cycles of violence, the main focus of the program/training.
Photo by Jim Bishop

Lou Furman costumed himself as "Truth" by piling several hats atop his head, explaining "There are many truths."

He and three colleagues – "Justice," wearing a sign with scales; "Mercy," waving a feathered wand; and "Peace," balancing an inflated globe – were asked by fellow-trainee group members to identify which of the fellow-virtues they most feared. "Justice" said she feared "Truth," citing the very complexity Furman had identified.

These adult role-players and their colleagues will take that activity and numerous others, meant as thought-provoking, team-building and/or therapeutic, home to share and test with youth on six continents.

The 16 trainees spent a week in late May on the Eastern Mennonite University campus, working with a fledgling youth curriculum under development, since September 2005, by STAR – Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience, a joint effort of Church World Service and EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP).

The youth program comes in response to many requests from STAR alumni. "The STAR seminar for adults provides theoretical information not easily accessible to young people, so our job is to make the STAR content available to them," said STAR Youth Coordinator Vesna Hart. "The final version of the materials will be the result of pilot testing the materials in various cultural and social contexts. Trainees – all with peacebuilding, counseling or youth-work backgrounds – through the implementation of the program will be able to identify what works and what doesn't work with youth in their respective countries," she added.

The goal is to design a culturally adaptive curriculum for worldwide presentation at after-school programs, refugee camps, churches and community centers with youth ages 14-18 who experienced trauma due to natural disaster or direct violence.

"The goal of the program is to help young people to break cycles of violence through raising awareness about trauma and peace and justice issues and to encourage them to actively participate in making a difference in their communities," Hart noted. STAR intends to publish the program materials, now in draft form and scheduled for completion by Spring 2007.

L. to r.: Augustus Ben Omalla (Kenya), Phyllis Gagnier (Arizona) and Gladys Mwiti (Kenya) compare notes and encourage each other between sessions of the STAR seminar.
Photo by Jim Bishop

One group exercise entailed looking at two possible responses to an injustice. Hart noted peacebuilders favor replacing the traditional approach - Who is guilty? What should be the punishment? - with inquiring, Who has been harmed? How can we put right the harm? What have we learned? "It’s not forgive and forget; it’s remember and change," she said.

The group brainstormed on how these processes might apply if one participant stole another’s shirt. Punish the thief? Simply require its return? One colleague asked, "What if you have many shirts and he has none?"

"I have a question. How do we survive?" Gladys Mwiti inquired during that discussion. This clinical psychologist from Kenya, working with Oasis Africa for at-risk youth, serves many who need not only trauma healing but basic necessities. Mwiti calls her organization’s work "holistic," adding: "We try to pool resources."

She said later, "I have a plan – bring them in, train them, then send them back to work in their communities. I call myself the ripple effect woman, but of course there is only one of me."

The adolescents Khola Irum serves share certain problems with American teens: bullying; abusive language; drug use; academic pressures; diminished family time. The Pakistani physician, who has volunteered for eight years as a school counselor, added, "Counseling is something they don’t understand in my country." She is preparing to assist earthquake victims in northern Pakistan.

Phyllis Gagnier said that in applying STAR to teaching and counseling Native American children in Arizona, "The piece on trauma is most important."

Amy Taliaferro – who works in Brooklyn, NY, for an interfaith dialogue group, the Temple of Understanding - said STAR adds practical grounding to her theoretical preparation. Her organization had more difficulty interesting the public and media in interfaith dialogue prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Now, "What we have is so needed, it’s no longer seen as a luxury."

Furman, who role-played as "Truth," has also seen disaster raise consciousness of neglected needs. In New Orleans, counseling youth for Turning Point Partners, he said, "We can’t assume as adults that we have the truth of what their needs are."

He hopes STAR can help him help students where schools struggle to achieve mere "normalcy," post-Katrina, noting: "What this allows me to do is to offer a very structured and well-conceived curriculum."

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Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer living in Harrisonburg.

— article by: Jim Bishop; posted June 1, 2006