Shawnee Academy is pleased to be in the process of incorporating the Sanctuary Model into all of its residential and education programs.
The Sanctuary Model is a comprehensive treatment and organizational approach, where psychological and social trauma can be addressed and resolved in a sensitive, “living-learning” environment. Developing a community where all staff and children take an active responsibility for the treatment and overall progress of the program, will ultimately improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the treatment of traumatized individuals, foster positive morale and staff retention, and provide our children with practical tools that they can use well after their stay at Shawnee Academy.
Shawnee Academy services the special needs of children and youth who have experienced the damaging effects of interpersonal violence, abuse, and trauma. We recognize that a crucial aspect in the healing process is an individual’s ability to gain an understanding of their emotional reactivity. Victims of trauma may frequently repeat destructive behaviors without conscious awareness and have difficulty appropriately regulating their emotions, both of which interfere with their ability to problem solve, communicate needs effectively, and resolve conflict in a healthy manner.
The Sanctuary Model is not an intervention, but a full-system approach that permeates into every facet of the organization with the intention of promoting the idea that every interaction staff have, regardless of what department or capacity, is an opportunity to positively influence and reinforce a child’s therapy.
The Sanctuary Model, its Seven Commitments, and Psycho-educational curriculums are framed around four interactive key concepts known as S.E.L.F.:
Safety: Refers to the physical safety of the clients and staff as part of the community; the psychological safety of individuals in terms of feeling safe with oneself; the social safety of feeling safe in social interactions with others in the community; and the moral safety in which an individual feels safe to identify and make moral decisions without external influences of consequences or repercussions.
Emotional Management: Focuses on an individual’s ability to not just express nor suppress their emotions, but to appropriately regulate their emotions without becoming self destructive or destructive in other ways.
Loss: Promotes an individual’s ability to indentify, accept, and overcome barriers of personal loss.
Future: Fostering a positive view of the future and re-establishing the capacity for choice.
To effectively implement the Sanctuary Model, the Shawnee Academy community has embraced seven cultural characteristics that serve as a guide in its treatment environment. These characteristics are known as the Seven Commitments:
Non-violence – Helping to build safety skills, as well as, promoting physical, psychological, social, and moral safety within the community.
Emotional Intelligence – Helping to teach appropriate emotion management skills.
Social Learning – Utilizing the “wisdom of the group” as a means to teach and develop cognitive, problem-solving skills.
Shared Governance – Reinforcing social learning by encouraging members of the community to have a voice and by actively taking part in a democratic system.
Open Communication – Embracing open communication to effectively work out problems, resolve conflict, and help support each other.
Social Responsibility – Understanding that we all support and are supported by each other when our responsibilities to the community are upheld.
Growth and Change – Enabling individuals to make appropriates changes within their recovery; demonstrating this as a facility by changing our treatment approaches if deemed ineffective for that individual.
Shawnee Academy is committed to creating a campus community that is psychologically, socially, physically, and ethically safe for our children, their families, and our staff. The Sanctuary Model guides Shawnee Academy’s treatment planning and provides the parameters for day-to-day interactions, communications, problem solving strategies, and relationships at all levels of the organization.
For more information about the Sanctuary Model, our treatment programs, and the positive outcomes of implementing a trauma-informed culture, please go to the Contact Us page or call 570-420-8601.
