Strategies for Trauma Awareness & Resilience - STAR Training

This STAR Training will be offered in-person. Location is TBD (in the Twin Cities, MN)

Daily schedule of the STAR Training:

Tuesday, June 25, 2024: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Wednesday, June 26, 2024: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Thursday, June 27, 2024: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Friday, June 28, 2024: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Saturday, June 29, 2024: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

The 38-hour Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) Training is Best Practices in Trauma-Informed, Racial Healing and Equity, Resilience-Oriented, Restorative Justice-Focused Care to Transform Psychological Trauma into Nonviolent Power.

STAR Training Facilitator:

Crixell Shell, MS, Executive Director of Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute, Lead STAR Trainer, Coming to the Table Racial Healing Talking Circle Lead Facilitator, and Rule 114 Community Mediator

Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience - the STAR Training, is a 38-hour, multi-day evidence-based trauma awareness, resilience, and restorative justice training with a 20+ year reputation of national and international success. STAR integrates the latest trauma healing and resilience research from the fields of neurobiology, restorative justice, nonviolent conflict transformation, and broadly defined spirituality. STAR promotes truth-telling and racial healing for just, equitable relationships toward the possibility of reconciliation for positive interpersonal and systemic nonviolent change.

STAR was created at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA with a $2,000,000 grant in the year following the US tragedy of September 11, 2001. Since then STAR has taught thousands of laypeople, paraprofessionals, and professionals from over 70 countries how to transform psychological trauma into nonviolent power with positive productive alternatives to revenge for personal, community, organizational, and structural change when tragic human-caused traumas and natural disasters happen.

From its inception, STAR has encompassed a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-faith perspective that has been well received globally and locally. Since June 2010, STAR has been sponsored in Minnesota by the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute. Because of COVID-19 health risks associated with in-person gatherings, beginning in 2021, the STAR Training is being offered online via Zoom video conference by the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute.

The STAR Training teaches best practices to strengthen the capacity of caregivers, community activists and organizers, leaders, and organizations to understand and address psychological trauma, break cycles of victimhood and violence, and build resilience with restorative justice strategies, setting the stage for the possibility of authentic reconciliation.

In Minnesota:

98% of STAR graduates rated the STAR Training as “Very Good” to “Excellent”

100% increased their confidence to appropriately aid and assist when their clients, family, friends, and community members face stressful and traumatic circumstances.

99% indicated they recommend the STAR Training to others.

STAR Training Objectives

1. Learn, explore, and share language and resources about resilience and trauma – definitions, causes/ origins, diverse impact on bodies, brain, beliefs, and behaviors.

2. Understand out trauma responses can contribute to cycles of violence at different levels: self, relationships, organizations, communities, nations, the Earth.

3. Identify and practice tools to strengthen resilience and break free from cycles of violence at personal and collective levels.

4. Deepen commitment to self-care and collective care as core practices for (re)generating healthy power amidst vulnerability and uncertainty.

Group discounts and scholarship assistance for the STAR Training are available as we strive for racial and economic diversity at each training. Please contact Peacebuilding at info@mnpeace.org for a scholarship application or group discount details.

To maximize the STAR Training experience, the number of STAR trainees is a maximum of 26 at each training.

This training meets the criteria for 38 CE hours according to the Minnesota and Wisconsin professional licensing boards for Counseling, Social Work, and Psychology and the Minnesota professional licensing boards for Nurses and Teachers. Licensed professionals from other states, provinces and territories are responsible for consulting with their professional licensing boards to ensure reciprocity for continuing education credit for this training.

Once your online registration and tuition payment are received, additional training materials will be emailed to you several days before the training begins. If you have questions, please contact Peacebuilding at info@mnpeace.org or 612-345-4310.

To avoid the online processing fee, please contact the Peacebuilding office at info@mnpeace.org and request payment by check via regular mail.

The STAR Training Guidelines

Welcome to The STAR Training! We are delighted that you are interested in joining us to interact, learn, and grow together. At many STAR trainings, trainees come from different countries and from various parts of the United States. Trainees represent different political leanings, cultural practices, religious traditions and understandings of spirituality and spiritual practices. The STAR program originated at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA. (www.emu.edu/star) Mennonites are a historic peace (Christian) church denomination which is neither Catholic nor Protestant. The STAR Training is not a religious program and warmly welcomes people of all backgrounds.

As you can imagine, this rich diversity makes a dynamic learning environment as we explore issues of trauma, security, justice and peacebuilding and relate it to our own contexts. In order to create an optimal learning environment, please take time to read the following understandings about STAR, beginning with the course objectives.

STAR recognizes that trauma affects body, mind, and spirit and addresses all of these aspects.

Psychological trauma hits us where we are most vulnerable and makes chaos out of the order of our lives. Healing processes need to address body, mind and spirit. As human beings, it is normal for those coming from a spiritual tradition to seek comfort and reassurance from their faith at such times or to address deep questions of meaning. All of us are aware of the religious tensions that exist in our world today. Your STAR cohort will likely be a microcosm of our diverse world and we see it as a rich opportunity to build bridges of understanding.

STAR is conducted as a multi-cultural, multi-faith gathering.

This is different than conducting the sessions as an intercultural training (see definitions below.) It means each of person is given the safety and space to interact with the content of STAR freely using the language of his/her own culture and faith tradition or spiritual practice. We ask that you exercise respect and sensitivity in this and at all times, speak only for yourself.

We have also found that, given the diversity of people who come to STAR, many issues, both individual and structural, could be used as case studies of trauma and the resulting cycles of victimhood, oppression, and violence. Because of the complexity, long history, and emotional intensity of such issues, getting centered on any one could result in diversion from the primary training objectives for the training sessions and jeopardize the learning atmosphere for others.

Therefore, for the emotional safety of the group, we ask that STAR not be used as a platform for the promotion of a particular theological, ideological, or political issue.

Multi-faith: a situation where persons of different faiths are present in one setting

Multi-cultural: of or relating to or including several cultures

Interfaith: activities that involve an interaction between different faiths such as dialoguing, praying, marrying, or working on joint projects.

Intercultural: studies of a large number of cultures, or studies that try to identify dimensions that are not culture specific: cultural dimensions applicable for all cultures.

STAR is an educational event.

Many STAR trainees have found the training to be therapeutic, but STAR is not designed to be therapy. The experiential exercises are to illustrate ways of working in communities affected by trauma. The academic input is educational in nature. Neither should be used as diagnostic or professional treatment tools. Any concerns you might have about psychological issues should be discussed with a qualified mental health professional. If you have questions about this during the training, please discuss them with STAR staff.

Following from these understandings, we offer the following guidelines for the training:

a. See the training sessions as an opportunity to stretch and grow, owning that many of us have much to learn about other people’s cultures, faith, and perspectives.

b. Speak for yourself rather than being prescriptive for the group.

c. Share who you are, but refrain from theological, cultural and philosophical debates and proselytizing.

d. Use the “Ouch, then educate” principle if someone says something that offends or hurts. Example: “Ouch, making that generalization about Africans, Muslims, etc. reinforces tired, outdated stereotypes. In fact…).

e. Assume that no one in the group is out to deliberately hurt or degrade one's faith or one's people.

f. Tell personal stories to illustrate why you feel a certain way about something controversial rather than making general statements or pronouncements.

g. Ask rather than make statements about another’s culture or faith. Example: “I understand that Hindus... Am I correct?” “Is it true that in the US you …?”

STAR staff reserves the right to ask a trainee to withdraw from the training early if, based on our experience and judgment, his/her disruptive conduct jeopardizes the group’s educational experience.

Prior to asking a trainee to leave, we will:

1. Speak privately to the person, identify the behavior(s) causing disruption for the group and give a verbal reminder of the policies above.

2. If mutual understanding cannot be reached, as a last resort and with regret, the trainee will be asked to leave.

Again, a warm welcome to STAR! Please feel free to consult with STAR trainers with concerns or questions anytime. We look forward to a good experience together.

STAR is a program of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in Harrisonburg, VA. For more information and trainings offered in VA see: http://www.emu.edu/cjp/star/

Cancellation Policy: Refunds for this STAR Training, less a $30 administrative fee, will be given if written cancellation is received from the registrant by 35 days prior to the first day of the training. No tuition refund is offered after 35 days prior to the training. Transfer of tuition to another STAR training in Minnesota is granted if written request is received 10 days before the first day of this training. Refunds or transfers are not available for no-shows.

STAR and all of Peacebuilding's trainings are available by contract arrangement for community groups, educational institutions, organizations, and corporations.

MN Peacebuilding depends on people just like you to provide financial support for our community education trainings and events. If you have financial resources, please make a single or monthly recurring donation here: https://www.givemn.org/organization/Minnesota-Peacebuilding-Leadership-Institute