“Our country was birthed in a polarized cradle,” David Brubaker writes in the introduction to (Fortress Press, 2019). First, patriots and loyalists faced off leading up to the Revolutionary War. The American Civil War followed within the century. Then came the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement of the late 1960s.

“I believe the turmoil of the 1960s and early 1970s set the stage for our current era of polarization. Those of us in the baby-boom generation were shaped in the turmoil of the 1960s,” Brubaker writes. “And it is members of the baby-boom generation who now occupy the majority of leadership roles in business, education, health care, and government.”

When the Center Does Not Hold is like a guidebook grounded in sociology, offering mentorship for leaders who find themselves in polarized environments, such as the entire United States in the current era. Brubaker, dean of social sciences and professions at ��ݮ���� (EMU), co-authored the book with contributors Everett Brubaker ‘15, his son; Teresa Haase, former director of EMU’s MA in counseling program and current director of the Center for Grief and Healing at Hospice of the Piedmont; and Carolyn Yoder, the founding director of EMU’s (STAR) and author of Little Book of Trauma Healing (SkyHorse Publishing, 2020)

Their target audience is faith-based leaders in congregations, educational settings, communities, and other organizations. But David Brubaker noted that secular, for-profit, and governmental leaders will also find the concepts applicable. 

It was also important to him that the book be accessible for a wide audience – so each chapter opens with a story illustrating its concepts: like that about a Pennsylvania coal miner who supports Trump, proponents for and against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and even EMU’s own listening process about hiring faculty in same-sex relationships.

When the Center Does Not Hold goes beyond mere analysis of polarization. It calls for a special kind of leadership in response: leaders who are clear about where they stand, but also interested in the “experiences and beliefs of others in the systems they lead,” David Brubaker writes. “This is because the antidote to polarization is not conflict avoidance but conflict engagement.”

Each of the four authors brought insight from their own careers. David Brubaker said his interest in polarized systems began in 1991, when he encountered a high intensity conflict case in a congregation. An allegation of sexual misconduct came out against the lead minister, whose response further fractured the congregation.

“None of our traditional tools of structuring dialogue were effective, and we soon realized that we were in new territory,” he recalled.

Everett Brubaker, now the resident services and communications coordinator for the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority, has a background in working on environmental issues including climate change. He completed a master’s degree in environmental communication and advocacy from James Madison University in 2019. His chapter focuses on effective communication. 

As he watched debates over the veracity of climate change, “I recognized we would need additional skills to address what were ultimately challenges in communication, not necessarily a lack of knowledge or science,” he said. 

Haase brings counseling expertise to the table, with a specialty in grief and loss. Her chapter opens with a story about her grandmother, whose “courage and fierce compassion have always inspired me to lead from a heart-centered place with determination and perseverance,” said Haase. “In my experience as a leader, I have found resilience and vulnerability to be key factors for weathering adversity and polarization.”

Yoder’s background is also in counseling, specializing in individual and group trauma. In her chapter, “Trauma, Polarization, and Connection,” she draws on two key concepts to understand polarization. 

“What traumas have we experienced and what traumas have they experienced that bring us both to this way of seeing? This helps foster compassion and humanize each other,” says Yoder. And “understanding the neuroscience – the physical effects – on our brain and bodies of feeling safe or feeling threatened in a situation or in talking about a situation. This helps us understand the individual and group actions, reactions, beliefs and behaviors associated with each.”

The book’s final chapter opens with an analysis of Jesus’s own tactics in both assembling a diverse group of disciples in a polarized world, and instructing them to love their enemies while resisting their “dehumanizing behavior and the oppressive systems that supported such behavior.” 

“When we are able to name and resist the systems that violate human dignity while affirming the dignity of those trapped in such systems, we are helping ‘to protest and neutralize’ the onerous practices of our day,” David Brubaker writes. “And when we form loving communities that reflect the broad diversity of our society, we are demonstrating that relationships can flourish even in an age of polarization.” 

Read reflections by Phoebe Kilby,��Mohammad Abu-Nimer,��Maryam Sheikh, Sanjay Pulipaka, Howard Zehr and Ruth Zimmerman, and Shyamika Jayasundara-Smits.

 ***

The threatening invasion of Iraq by the U.S. sent me seeking CJP. Clearly the many peace marches I had participated in in Washington were not effective. I thought at the time that CJP could teach me about peacebuilding and how to stop such war mongering by my country. But what I learned instead equipped me to confront a more personal issue — that I and my family were offenders in an insidious history of injustice carried out within the United States since its founding. CJP gave me many tools to address those injustices, though the journey continues.

Taking classes with my international classmates was fascinating and humbling. I learned about conflicts all over the world and how people were working to transform them. Jayne Docherty gave me the tools for conflict analysis. John Paul Lederach taught me the importance of “mercy, truth, justice and peace” (Psalm 85:10) for conflict transformation. I explored identity with Barry Hart, the importance of ritual and symbol in peacebuilding with Lisa Schirch, restorative justice with Howard Zehr, and Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) with Carolyn Yoder. Mostly I thought about the use of these concepts and skills to address conflicts and injustices in other countries or in the US where those conflicts and injustices were caused by other people – not by me, not by my family.

A few years after I graduated, I learned that CJP was exploring a new program called . The people coming together were descendants of enslavers and persons enslaved in the United States. They were talking about racial healing and reconciliation. That got me thinking. My father’s family had a long history in Virginia. Had they been enslavers? It did not take much research for me to learn that indeed they were. I knew that there were African American Kilbys living in Virginia. A Google search brought up the name Betty Kilby Fisher, who had written a book titled Wit, Will and Walls (Cultural Innovations, Inc., 2002). When I read the book, I suspected that my family had once enslaved hers. Her father and mine had grown up on farms less than a mile apart.

But what should I do with this information? I consulted with CTTT co-founder Will Hairston, who told me that I should contact Betty. Now that was a scary thought. But my CJP experiences gave me the courage to try. If my classmates from Israel, Palestine and Lebanon could talk to each other, then I should be able to do this. On Martin Luther King Day 2007, I sent Betty an email.  She responded, “Hello Cousin.”

Since then, we have participated in CTTT together and learned more about our families. Historical records confirm that my family enslaved hers; DNA analysis shows we really are cousins. I have seen Betty show me mercy as we share the difficult truth of our families’ relationship and seek peace together. I have tried to make amends for the injustice of my family and my own treatment of African Americans through the establishment of a college scholarship endowment for Betty’s family. John Paul Lederach’s “mercy, truth, justice and peace” inspired this work as did Howard Zehr’s concepts of restorative justice. I watched as rituals used in STAR helped my cousin Betty face the many traumas she experienced when she and her brothers desegregated their high school. I learned that my own identity is linked to whiteness and privilege.

It may sound as though I have figured this all out, but the journey continues as I learn from Betty and our family and together we strive for that balance between peace and justice that CJP teaches us to seek.

Phoebe Kilby retired in 2014 having worked for eight years as associate director of development for ��ݮ����’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, where she also earned a graduate certificate in conflict transformation. Coming to the Table, a national racial reconciliation organization, was initially sponsored by CJP and was an affiliate organization from 2012 until recently (the organization is now sponsored by Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth in California). A past CTTT president, Phoebe is a member of the organization’s Reparations Working Group and co-facilitates a local group in Asheville, North Carolina.

She and her African American cousin, Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin, published their story in a book of CTTT stories, Slavery’s Descendants (Rutgers University Press, 2019), and were featured the month after the book was released in a.

In addition to her grad certificate, Phoebe holds a BS in botany and Master of Environmental Management degree, both from Duke University.

To share comments or connect with Phoebe, use the comment box below.

We’d love to hear and share your personal reflections about CJP at 25! To celebrate, reflect and dream with us, click here!

To mark STAR’s 10th anniversary, founding director Carolyn E. Yoder ’72 collaborated with current director Elaine Zook Barge ’84, MA ’03 (in conflict transformation), to produce a 38-page booklet, STAR – The Unfolding Story, 2001-2011, that explores the program’s astonishing growth. The teachings of STAR are also outlined in the booklet, which is available as an e-book at .

STAR began when Church World Service asked EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) to design a trauma-training program for civil society leaders whose communities had been affected by Sept 11.

In developing STAR, Yoder tapped the expertise of the professors at CJP, as well as of experts in religion, psychology and neurobiology in the larger community. She came as a licensed professional counselor, also licensed in marriage and family therapy.

parked by Yoder’s quest, CJP began to break down disciplinary boundaries, melding the principles of restorative justice, conflict transformation, trauma healing, and religious faith into better practices for positive change. The result was a week-long training program to raise awareness of the links between trauma and cycles of violence, along with ways to de-couple those links and thereby emerge from the cycles.

I work and live in an inner city where people have experienced multiple layers and kinds of trauma,” said New Jersey pastor Sheila Holmes in the booklet. “The youth are very angry and frustrated. All the STAR materials have been helpful in my work. The most helpful in my community is the understanding of ‘abnormal becoming normal’ and how we just come to accept that and don’t realize we can be set free.”

As STAR’s first director, Yoder facilitated over 50 trainings with about 800 people from 60 countries during STAR’s first five years. The number of people who have now taken STAR tops 7,000.

“The general perception is that trauma healing is soft, a warm fuzzy, that it has little or nothing to do with realpolitik and no role to play in reducing violence,” wrote Yoder in her 2005 book, The Little Book of Trauma Healing. “Yet trauma and violence are integrally linked: violence often leads to trauma, and unhealed trauma, in turn, can lead to violence and further loss of security.”

— BPL

That is one reason more than 1,000 Haitians have welcomed trainings, materials and principles derived from ��ݮ����’s .

“The training has helped me understand the relationship between violence and trauma,” says Reginald, a 26-year-old disabled Haitian man who attended STAR workshops this year in Port-au-Prince. “My dream is to share the trainings with all the disabled people in Haiti to help them overcome their own traumas and become resilient.”

Using STAR curriculum translated and contextualized for Haiti, project staff have taught basic trauma awareness and response skills to a core group that exceeds 1,000 volunteers, including Reginald, many of whom are now putting the concepts to work in their own communities.

Enthusiasm for the trainings – sponsored by six Christian organizations including – demonstrates the profound need for trauma work in Haiti, as well as STAR’s relevance across cultures and contexts, say several people affiliated with the project.

“It is really a blessing. It is really amazing to have this kind of program in Haiti to contribute to the construction of human beings as well as the resilience of the Haitian people,” says Garly Michel, the program coordinator with the STAR project in Haiti who is overseeing trainings throughout the country.

The three-year project, now entering its final year, was launched in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that killed 316,000 and left 1.5 million homeless, according to Haitian government statistics. Originally focused on the areas most affected by the earthquake, Michel says the project’s scope soon expanded to include all 10 départements, or states, in Haiti.

“We’d like to see a non-violent, healthy and resilient Haiti where each Haitian feels comfortable, safe and proud to live,” says Harry Thélusma, program officer with the STAR project in Haiti.

“The curriculum works, and it works in so many contexts,” says STAR director . “For me, that’s just really affirming.”

STAR founding director Carolyn Yoder says one reason STAR principles can be so widely applied is that they address basic, universal human responses and reactions to pain and hurt.

Yoder, who now works part-time with STAR as its systems developer, joined Barge in Haiti in the early fall of 2012 where they trained 15 facilitators who will continue work with the larger group of STAR participants in the country. In the coming year, Michel says he and his colleagues plan to provide STAR training to at least 480 more people.

Michel and Thélusma, who are both alumni of , said their biggest wishes for the future are prayers for Haiti and continued financial support that will allow them to continue STAR trainings beyond the end of the initial three-year pilot program in September 2013.

For 10 years, – has been helping to break that cycle.

A February celebration at EMU marked a decade for this program that emerged at from the ashes of Sept. 11.

A model that works

The STAR model has proven effective and is evolving for specific populations reported founding director Carolyn E. Yoder and current director . The two shared stories of transformation and future plans during the February celebration. University leadership, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding staff, STAR alumni and community members were also present during the event.

Both Yoder and Barge shared that previously living in international settings had laid a foundation for their work with STAR.

“When I worked in Central America during the 1980s we often used the book ‘Where there is no doctor,'” shared Barge. “I listened to my neighbors who were traumatized by war. I wished we had a reference called ‘Where there is no psychologist.’ STAR has become that resource.”

STAR training is applicable to people from all walks of life whether they have experienced a profound loss in a natural disaster, war, or are carrying hurts from something on a smaller scale such as a church conflict. STAR participants come to training sessions with questions as varied as: “How do I help people in my country deal with the earthquake?” to “I’m surrounded by conflict. How do I keep from burning out?”

“By offering a safe space to address trauma which is often the ‘elephant in the room,'” said Barge, STAR is making a difference on an individual and collective level.

Breaking boundaries

The STAR model breaks down disciplinary boundaries, melding the principles of restorative justice, conflict transformation, trauma healing, and   faith into better practices for positive change. The week-long training raises awareness of the links between unhealed trauma and cycles of violence, along with ways to  break those links and thereby emerge from the cycles.

Barge and Yoder see barriers break down between people from opposing “sides” as a result of STAR training and hear reports of “increased resilience” for people working in high stress situations.

“The information on the links between resilience and addressing trauma is very helpful to me in understanding how to stay healthy in the midst of a stressful work environment,” wrote a humanitarian aid organization worker from Syria after a recent STAR training.

As STAR’s first director, Yoder facilitated over 50 trainings with about 800 people from 60 countries during STAR’s first five years. STAR has now trained more than 7,000 people worldwide.

Today trainings take place in Harrisonburg, Va., across the United States and all over the world in places like Mexico City, Lebanon and Haiti. The material is easily adapted to different contexts and is effective whether taught outside under the trees, in a well-equipped conference room, or in a small church hallway. STAR trainers come with rich experience in different cultures and contexts; some offer the training in Spanish.

What next?

The foundational STAR trainings – STAR Level I – are offered both on and off campus and can be taken for continuing education credits. STAR Level II trainings or “specialized” seminars are now available for those who have completed the first training and want additional tools for working with particular audiences. So far, these include , and , a program that helps communities support veterans.

Plans are underway for the development of a certification process for those who want to become STAR trainers. A 38-page booklet, “” explores the program’s astonishing growth. The teachings of STAR are also outlined in the booklet, which is available as an e-book at .

To learn more, explore STAR training dates or register for a training, visit the website at , call 540-432-4651 or email star@emu.edu.

The inspiring story of how STAR emerged in late 2001 to support traumatized religious leaders and caregivers in New York City is contained in a just-issued e-book “STAR, The Unfolding Story, 2001-2011, A 9/11 Commemorative Edition.” It is available for downloading on EMU’s website, emu.edu.

“We wanted to commemorate 9/11 in a way that honors those who died and those who have died since then as a result of the events unleashed that day,” said , program director of STAR, a program of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. “The second purpose of the book was to document the impact of the STAR program and the effects it has had throughout the world.”

In addition, Barge believes the e-book can provide another informational tool for organizations and individuals who are interested in knowing more about STAR and how it facilitates trauma healing and training.

“A core concept of STAR that is found in the book is that unhealed trauma has some predictable characteristics,” said Carolyn Yoder, program director of STAR during 2002-06. “One being that it leads to cycles of violence that are acted out against ourselves or others. Breaking free of cycles of violence is a process that begins with an awareness of what trauma does to individuals and groups.”

Persons affected by Sept. 11 are not the only ones who have benefited from STAR, said Barge. “At first the focus was on 9/11 in terms of trauma and conflict transformation, but now we are assisting  persons affected by natural disasters and conflict and violence of all types.”

Interest in the STAR program is as high as ever, according to Barge. The challenge for Barge and the STAR trainers is getting the program in the hands of non-government organizations (NGOs), specifically those struggling due to economic stress. The e-book seeks to change that.

“I’ve already talked with a new NGO in Minnesota and in Guatemala,” said Barge. “It was very beneficial to have an electronic resource available to send to them.”

Over the next 10 years Barge believes STAR can continue growing through government and non-governmental organizations.

“We anticipate the growth of STAR to continue through expansion of technical assistance, specialized training for veterans and youth, and offering STAR for credit at EMU,” said Yoder.

To learn more about STAR, the commemorative e-book or training opportunities contact Jennifer Fawley at 540-432-4651 or jennifer.fawley@emu.edu.

More stories and resources…

• Beyond September 11th – Reflecting on the events and the legacy of 9/11
• – Blog posts and articles related to the STAR program
• Follow

Sept. 11 brought devastating loss to thousands of people in New York City, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and around the world. It changed our worldview from “before 9/11” to “after 9/11.”

“As a community of learning committed to walking boldly in the way of nonviolence and peace, EMU’s thoughts on this anniversary turn towards peace and the ongoing hope that people of varied faiths and traditions can unite around common values and aspirations,” said Fred Kniss, PhD, provost of EMU. “From our various disciplinary and faith perspectives, we want to explore the important and complex questions that the events of 9/11 and afterwards pose for our global well-being.”

What have we learned? How have we changed? EMU is offering resources and events to provide a perspective on those questions.

“We hope they will help our students and community to gain a richer understanding of the challenges that face us today,” said Kniss.

������Գٲ���

Planned events provide opportunity for corporate and individual lament, prayer and processing as a local and campus community.

Saturday, Sept. 10, 7 p.m., interfaith gathering, “Turning toward Peace,” Court Square, downtown Harrisonburg, co-sponsored by EMU’s Center for Interfaith Engagement and others.

The time will include reflections, poetry, singing, inspiration and artistic expression for peace.  This gathering welcomesChristians, Muslims, Jews, persons in faith or no faith traditions, students and families. The event is open to persons of all ages.

Sunday, Sept. 11, 1 p.m., National Moment of Remembrance. EMU will toll the bells at Lehman Auditorium for one minute.

Sunday, Sept. 11, 7 p.m., outdoor gathering for reflection, singing, prayer and thoughts on turning toward hope for reconciliation and peace in our world.  Sponsored by EMU Campus Ministries. Located on the hill behind the EMU Campus Center.

Sunday, Sept. 11, 8 p.m., faculty and staff forum on how their work has been shaped and changed by the events of Sept. 11. Panelists will include , PhD, director of and professor in the ; Carolyn Yoder, PhD, founder and trainer with EMU’s program; and and t from EMU’s . The forum will be held in Common Grounds Coffee House in the lower level of University Commons. The event is free and open to the public.

Resources

Publication of an e-book, “STAR, The Unfolding Story, 2001-2011, a 9/11 commemorative edition,”  celebrates the birth and phenomenal growth of EMU’s trauma healing and training program, STAR, which grew out of 9/11 and has gone on to touch thousands of lives all over the world.

EMU’s thoughts on this anniversary point towards peace and the ongoing hope that people of varied faiths and traditions can unite around common values and aspirations.

EMU hopes these events and resources will generate energy to “walk boldly in the way of nonviolence and peace,” a stated goal from .

By Heather Bowser, Daily News-Record

Not all treasures are locked away in banks or buried in chests beneath the ocean.

Last week, one classroom on ��ݮ����

Ten adults were given clay, blocks and pipe-cleaners. During a March retreat at the Mountain Valley center near Harrisonburg, these ten

Jacques Koko of Benin

Carolyn Yoder (above), director of STAR, issued an invitation to university faculty to attend a mini-STAR workshop.

The STAR program grew out of response to the events of September 11th, 2001. Initially designed to support religious caregivers in the New York City area who needed assistance helping people through the trauma of the event and its aftermath, the program has now served more than 800 religious leaders and caregivers of all faiths. Starting in February 2002, leaders and caregivers from the U.S. and around the world, from different faith and spiritual orientations, came together for five-day seminars on campus.

Since the beginning of STAR, additional activities have been developed to increase effectiveness; contextualized introductory seminars have taken place in Columbia, Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, and several other training, coaching and consulting initiatives have also been developed.

This Mini-Star Workshop will include a presentation of the STAR model, experiential exercises, and a time to reflect theologically on the model from an Anabaptist perspective. The schedule is as follows:

Friday, March 4

• 9 a.m. -12 p.m.
  Defining Trauma and Part I of the STAR Model: Trauma Healing Journey — Breaking the Cycles of Victimhood and Violence.
• 1 – 4 p.m.
  Part II of STAR model and Symbols of Trauma

Friday, March 18

• 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
  Responses to the Trauma Healing Model, “Anabaptizing” participants and Symbols of Hope.

��ݮ���� faculty interested in reserving a space at the workshop should contact Sharon Forret in the STAR office at sharon.forret@emu.edu or at (540) 432-4651. Preference will be given to those who can attend both days.

The invitation was issued jointly by Carolyn Yoder, Director, STAR and Kenton Derstine, Eastern Mennonite Seminary Faculty and STAR advisory board member.