Peace, Resiliency and Wellness Training for Persons Who Work with At-Risk Children

Students in training and front-line professionals who work with children deemed at risk are being empowered to better offer care and support to those in their charge.

Through the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA) Peace, Resiliency and Wellness (PRW) training course, persons are being equipped to cater to their own well-being and, in turn, address the needs of the vulnerable youngsters.

The training is being offered through the Peace Institute at the International University of the Caribbean (IUC) and represents the latest component of the Child Resiliency Programme, which is operated by the VPA.

In a recent interview, Child Resiliency Programme Director, VPA, Dr. Kim Scott, tells JIS News that the course teaches the students and front-line persons, such as teachers, guidance counsellors, church and community leaders, how to build peace, resilience, and wellness in themselves, to enable them to “show up” for those children who are at risk.

She says that through the training experience, persons are empowered to undertake a journey of personal growth.

“The mantra that we’re chanting is really that peace begins with me and as we continue on this peace-building process, we recognise the importance of persons who are on the front line to be able to manifest peace in their own lives. This is to be able to impact those around them, particularly the children with whom they work, who have been traumatised in some way or are trying to bounce back from a traumatic experience,” she points out.

Dr. Scott explains that the eight-week course forms part of a targeted decision to invest in persons who will be or are working closely with children at risk.

It has been integrated in the guidance and counselling curriculum, the education curriculum, and the master’s in counselling psychology curriculum at the IUC.

“It’s actually a mandatory course for graduation at the University now. It is a critical component of what needs to happen across the board. At the end of the day, all the universities really need to be integrating a mandatory course on peace building, resilience and wellness training because it’s not a matter just for the security forces,” Dr. Scott contends.

“This is a public health issue that we have. We now must make some targeted decisions to invest in the persons who are going to be out there managing children at risk, who [may be] going down a road of crime and violence. We must be able to support them and provide those protective buffers in the early years before it’s too late. Those persons need to be able to be supported to be able to do that,” she points out further.

Dr. Scott tells JIS News that short courses, over one or two days, are also offered.

“In essence, we’re offering certificate training through the Peace Institute. The private sector has also reached out, sometimes to just do a one-day, two-day PRW training for their staff. We’ve done that with Foundations also,” she informs.

Dr. Scott says the training empowers persons to improve their mental health and lives.

“In a sense, we are finding that everyone is having their mental health challenged due to various traumas that may have happened. There’s a whole business of secondary traumatic stress, which has been occurring across our school system, and resilience is what helps persons to adapt well to these events instead of feeling overwhelmed, dwelling on the problems and using unhealthy ways to deal with the stress and developing anxiety or depression,” she says.

“So, not only does it involve bouncing back from any life-changing situation; it’s empowering persons to grow and to improve their lives and those around them. This does not mean that people are not going to experience emotional pain and conflict or difficult situations, but through the training experience, persons have been empowered to develop a journey of personal growth, peace and resiliency,” she stresses.

Dr. Scott tells JIS News that the PRW course also includes a module on how to build resilience in children.

“So, there’s a manual, a handbook out on the experiences of how to develop a child resiliency programme in your school or your community,” she notes.

Dr. Scott says the reception and feedback from the participants have been positive and reinforces the need for the training.

“Generally, teachers and guidance counsellors, church leaders, police personnel are on the front line and we can’t expect them to keep showing up and performing and taking on more programmes and projects without having some support for their own mental health and their own peace within their family. So, it is a very rewarding and exciting experience for them, ” she notes.

Dr. Scott notes that hundreds of persons, comprising students, individuals from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the HEART/NSTA Trust and feeder schools associated with the Child Resiliency Programme have received training in the course since training began in 2022.

“We train about 120 university students per year and… we’ve done the HEART training, that was like a group of 30, we just did the feeder schools, another 30, and about another 200 NGO and HEART students have taken part in the training thus far,” she informs.

She tells JIS News that the training was introduced to address the burnout being experienced by facilitators in the Child Resiliency Programme during the pandemic.

“During COVID, we had [approximately] 240 families on the programme, and we found that the facilitators were really struggling because these children are… highly at risk [some with] parents incarcerated, just very difficult to manage. So, during COVID, we revamped,” she says.

The Child Resiliency Programme has been operating through the Peace Institute in partnership with the VPA since 2021.

The children on the programme are referred by guidance counsellors and teachers from schools in the Corporate Area. The children stay in the after-school programme for one year and are taught life and literacy skills, among other things.

“We take children referred from grade five who are at risk for violence and other… adverse childhood experiences, so the guidance counsellors and the teachers will refer these children who might not be reading up to grade level, have suffered any kind of sexual, physical, emotional abuse or neglect, fighting, just generally needing extra support, mental health issues.

“They come after school and do drumming, dancing, the creative arts, sports activities, life skills training, which tends to follow what’s on the guidance and counselling curriculum, as well as academic support activities, which is predominant in language arts,” Dr. Scott informs.

“We also do home visits, family counselling, and basically, the children are rewarded every five weeks with individual prizes as well as group prize where they go on a field trip, whether to a river or somewhere to get out of their community into a green space,” she tells JIS News.

For more information, persons may contact the Peace Institute at 876-790-7436 or via e-mail at childresiliency@gmail.com or resiliencyandwellnesstraining@gmail.com.