Turning Point Partners of Louisiana

Turning Point Partners Louisiana is an approved center for the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program of Eastern Mennonite University. TPPL provides STAR and Youth STAR trainings to teachers, faith leaders, youth, professionals, and volunteers.

STAR is a community-based, multi-discipline approach to addressing the trauma caused by violence and natural disaster, as well as historic and social traumas.  It provides both theory and experiential activities to enhance understanding of trauma and resilience to trauma.  The Youth STAR curriculum is designed to meet the learning styles of young people.

Unhealed wounds caused by trauma may lead to poor academics, bullying, drug use and other activity that harms community members.

Trauma is often seen as a phenomenon affecting individuals, and much of the trauma-healing work has been limited to the individual level.  STAR relates body and spirit to trauma healing and demonstrates that it needs to be addressed in the larger community.  STAR activities honor multi-faith participation and the important interaction of those from diverse backgrounds in the US and around the world.

STAR training is intended to enable participants to:

• Define types of trauma and recognize the impact on body, mind and spirit

• Understand the cycles of victimhood and violence for individuals, communities and societies and the relationship to unhealed trauma

• Apply the STAR model –The Trauma Healing Journey: Breaking the Cycles of Victimhood and Violence — to individual and group situations

• Use new skills to address trauma and build resilience

• Recognize compassion fatigue/satisfaction levels in caregivers

• Become familiar with resilience building strategies, such as communication skills and restorative practices

• Relate trauma work to the field of peacebuilding

The STAR framework draws on the fields of neurobiology, psychology, restorative justice, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and religion/spirituality.