Below is an excerpt from the manual that outlines the content and structure. You can download the manual and document containing important reflection questions for engaging the curriculum. 

Download STAR for Sexual Harms Manual
Guide for use of STAR for Sexual Harms Manual

STAR is currently seeking an organizational partner in implementing a pilot project with the materials. If you or your organization are interested, please review the reflection questions and ideal audiences and contact us at star@emu.edu.

Read more about STAR and the work with sexual harms.

��ݮ���� professor Carolyn Stauffer is leading the development of a new Strategies for Trauma and Resilience (STAR) curriculum focused on sexual harms.

The “Changing the Narrative on Sexual Harms” (CTN) project, which is funded by a JustPax Fund grant, is housed in the STAR program under the leadership of trainer Katie Mansfield and program director Hannah Kelley. Project contributors include Richmond Public Schools manager of school climate and culture Ram Bhagat GC ‘19 and neuroscientist and practitioner Joy Kreider. EMU’s Title IX coordinator Rachel Roth Sawatsky and the Collins Center crisis response coordinator Rhoda Miller, a CJP grad student, are also key contributors.

STAR has facilitated trauma and resilience trainings with thousands of participants from more than 60 countries. The curriculum will deepen the program’s work addressing sexual trauma specifically and will engage all affected parties – from individuals to institutions – in proactive, preventative and restorative approaches.

“Worldwide there is a growing admission that the topic of sexual harms is quickly moving from invisible peripheries to conspicuous center stage,” Stauffer said. “The CTN project provides a viable way to be visibly present at a critical time in this important conversation. This proactive approach frames the paradigm shift opportunity offered by CTN.”

The grant includes funding for assembling focus groups in local and international settings, interviewing global practice leaders, and accessing expertise at institutions such as Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.

The project is collecting input from survivors across diverse communities, thereby ensuring the inclusion of voices from marginalized and underrepresented communities. In addition to the harmful impacts of sexual violence on individuals, the curriculum will address how power disequilibria can foster cultures of violence in communities and organizations.

“Many organizations do not have processes in place to support individuals in a trauma-sensitive manner nor the impetus to push for proactive policies that prevent sexual violence in the first place,” Stauffer wrote. “Daily we hear of ‘sexual misconduct’ that gains notoriety precisely because institutions are non-compliant with current legislation and ignorant of trauma-sensitive intervention protocols. Such gaps not only compound the profound harms already done to victims, but they also put the integrity, legality and legitimacy of organizations at risk.”

The JustPax Fund focuses on individuals and organizations working for effective change through innovative approaches to societal challenges relating to gender, environmental and/or economic justice. It is administered by Everence Charitable Services through the Everence affiliate Mennonite Foundation.

“This project is the heart of what JustPax is all about,” said Teresa Boshart Yoder, managing director for Everence in Harrisonburg. “We want to reach out to the underserved or vulnerable and begin programs that will bring about effective change.”

This $6,600 grant is the second Stauffer has received from JustPax. A 2016 grant of $10,200 supported a project called “Silent Violence,” which studied strategies of resilience among domestic violence survivors from within communities of homeless women, undocumented Latinas, and Mennonite women from Old Order or conservative church communities.

South Korean Educator Eunkyung Ahn MA ‘19 began her CJP studies with an intensive short course about trauma and resilience – and she knew she wanted to pass the skills and values she learned to others.

“My key learning at CJP is the importance of embodied learning in peacebuilding, which is new to peacebuilding education here but also in Korea,” she said.

In February 2019, Ahn did just that – hosting a five-day course at EMU on “Building Resilience for Body, Mind and Spirit” for 18 visiting South Korean K-12 educators.

“This arts-based, expressive experience was designed to revitalize creativity for working in nonviolent social transformation and to exercise creative muscles, a critical foundational practice for challenging violence,” said course creator Katie Mansfield, the lead trainer of the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program.

Offered in past years at CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute, the course was tailored for this group by Ahn and Mansfield. Goals included an understanding of how systemic and cultural violence affects individual trauma; building resilience in body, mind, and spirit through arts-based, embodied learning; and empowerment for making social change, Ahn said.

Participants engaged in visual artistry, music making, movement exploration, poetry and short story development, and final presentations. A session with visiting co-facilitator and experienced public schools peace educator Ram Bhagat GC ’19 involved drumming and contemplative practices.

Mansfield appreciated the group’s engagement: “I was so impressed at how deeply and directly the educators connected the various expressive arts exercises to the challenges they face as educators, restorative justice practitioners and citizens of South Korea.”

The educators are members of the Center for Restorative Justice in Education, an affiliate of the Movement for Good Teachers, a grassroots Christian teachers association in South Korea. Formed in 2011 in response to a rise in school bullying, the teacher-members work to promote nonviolence and peace in the school environment.

Course participants Inki Hong, Eunji Park and Byeongjoo Lee are senior teachers at schools in urban neighborhoods near Seoul. All learned about circle processes and restorative justice in different ways in Korea, including teacher academies and international workshops, some involving Jae-Young Lee MA ’03, founder of the Korea Peacebuilding Institute.

Before learning about restorative justice, Hong says he played the role of a judge with his students. “Before, when children fight, I would have to decide who is wrong and who is right,” he said. “Now, I don’t decide. I help you figure out what happened and how to make things right. The circle makes equal power and equal power is not usually found in classrooms.”

Children in Korea “do not know how to express themselves,” said Park. “In the circle, they know how. It really develops metacognitive skills.”

Lee, who teaches middle and high school English, said he has appreciated “how the philosophy of RJ can be shaped into many circle styles.”

All three educators work with newcomer teachers in their home settings and plan to share their learnings in hopes of contributing to cultural and systemic change in the educational environment.

After graduation in May, Ahn took STAR II and visited spirituality-based peacebuilding communities before returning to her teaching position in South Korea. “I am so passionate about growing as an educator and helping to educate others about valuing our whole beings,” she said. “It is so important to live with our true selves in our individual and communal lives, and I hope to share that with my students and their parents and other educators in the future.”

SHORT-TERM GROUP TRAININGS MEET SPECIFIC NEEDS

Interested in a group training or workshop on restorative justice, conflict analysis or trauma and resilience? CJP has hosted a growing number of U.S. and international groups for short-term trainings, including judges from Nepal, educators from South Korea and the United States, and two cohorts of restorative justice practitioners from Brazil.

Building on years of experience facilitating trainings around the world, CJP faculty and staff from various programs help group leaders co-create innovative, beneficial educational experiences to meet each group’s specific goals.

“More and more, we see groups looking for creative, culturally-relevant and sensitive approaches to conflict analysis, restorative justice and trauma awareness and resilience,” said CJP Executive Director Jayne Docherty. “Our goal is to support change-makers in recognizing their own strengths and growing their toolkit for response in their professional and cultural context. Our strengths-based pedagogical practices tap into personal experiences, build relationships and engage different learning styles in a safe space.”

Visit emu.edu/cjp for more information or to inquire.