Youth and young adults are searching for healing and for someone to listen to them. Programs creating safe, positive, nurturing, and loving space where vulnerable youth and young adults are accepted and not judged, create a space where individuals can trust and flourish.
To create a healing environment, staff working with individuals who have experienced trauma need specialized training in trauma informed care and supportive supervision. Some staff have lived experience and are recovering from their own trauma. All staff need training and support to build relationships, listen to, and talk with, youth and young adults who have experienced trauma, particularly young adults with sexual abuse or sexual exploitation in their past.
Things for programs to be mindful of:
- It’s important to remember youth and young adults seeking services often have no backup. No family to help when they face challenges.
- Honor the pronouns the youth and young adults are using.
- Many youth entering housing services and shelters haven’t consistently had good home cooked hot food. Home cooked hot food for breakfast feels nourishing and nurturing. It brings a sense of being loved and cared for and sets people up to start their day from a good place.
- It would be helpful to have a therapist or mental health professional come to the site and have regular office hours. People can schedule appointments or just drop-in to talk. Regular on-site hours provide time when the youth know someone will be there for them. Someone they can speak to about confidential issues and feel safe with.
- Staff need access to mental health support and services as well.