Trauma Competent Care Training for Mentors Begins
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:32-33 (NLT)
All of the young people with whom Paths of Hope is working have lived lives touched by or filled with an unimaginable trauma. One young man who is particularly special to us is Huberth.
As a child, Huberth lived in two different children’s homes. We first met him when he was 12 years old.
There was a time when the prevailing wisdom in orphan care was that food, clothing, shelter, and love, were enough, enough to change the trajectory of a life like Huberth’s. But research has shown that trauma has a potentially life-altering impact in every developmental area for a growing child. Trauma deeply impacts a child’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual development, and addressing these deep wounds is perhaps the most important part of truly caring for these precious young people created in God's image!
Training in trauma-informed care and using this as a formative view for providing care can enable caregivers and mentors to help children heal and break the cycle of intergenerational trauma. We are so thankful that Paths of Hope missionary, Billy Greenman and others on our staff are trained in a program called Trauma Competent Care. Billy has become an affiliate trainer for the Trauma Competent Care program and providing this critically important training is now a key component of Paths of Hope’s ministry.
It has been thrilling to see Billy teaching this six-week course to church members, caregivers from a children’s home in Bolivia, and interested participants from the city of Lima. The Trauma Competent Care (TCC) course is the foundation of our mentoring program and a requirement for anyone desiring to be a mentor to at-risk youth through POH. We firmly believe that mentoring, by Christian volunteers who have been trained to understand and use interventions and special approaches, can change a child’s life and future.
Trauma Competent Care is changing lives! We see it in Huberth’s life! After leaving orphan/vulnerable children programming, Huberth, who is very gifted academically, received a government scholarship to study at a university in Lima. Without a support system, without having any of his traumas addressed, and with no one to encourage him, Huberth did not have what he needed to succeed.
However, through Paths of Hope, Billy was able to reconnect with this young man and began to mentor him. The POH Board decided to choose him as our very first educational scholarship recipient in 2020. Huberth has resumed his studies at the university and is scheduled to complete his degree in architecture in 2022. (See former posts for his story and video.)
Above and beyond this, it is such a delight to say that this young man is a participant in the TCC training that is now taking place! Huberth wants to be a mentor to others as he himself has been mentored. Through the TCC class, Huberth is learning the foundational skills to come alongside someone in their place of trauma and to walk with them on their journey into HOPE!
This class of twenty-three participants has huge potential to impact the city of Lima, the country of Peru and even into Bolivia, as they fulfill the mission of Paths of Hope, “to guide and support young adults to discover and pursue the purposes of God” through trauma competent care in mentoring.
The Gospel is the perfect picture of trauma competent care, isn’t it? The living God knows our many sorrows and trials. Our thoughts are not hidden from Him. He even knows the number of the hairs on our heads. He is the perfect parent and completely attuned to us. And He invites us to be cared for by Him and to take courage in this journey because He has already overcome on our behalf.
Thank you each and every one of you for being a partner with this team as we seek the good, the godly and the gospel opportunities placed before us at Paths of Hope!
