Sanctuary Certification

University Settlement has begun the three-year process of becoming a Trauma-Responsive agency through certification by the Sanctuary Institute, the only trauma-responsive accreditation in the nation. This accreditation will transform the agency to be more effective in properly addressing the trauma experienced by clients every day.

The Sanctuary Model is based on the proposition that it is not sufficient to be trauma-informed, which only implies that agencies will work to understand how trauma affects their clients.  In the Sanctuary Model, by contrast, the goal is to become trauma-responsive. That is, delivering services in a manner that minimally does not re-traumatize the individual, and maximally treats the underlying trauma that keeps clients from making progress.

The Seven Commitments of the Sanctuary Model guide the entire curriculum, and focus heavily on commitments to democracy, non-violence, social responsibility, open communication, social learning, growth and change, and emotional intelligence. This certification is not a textbook or manualized protocol, but an organic process that happens over the course of time to move an organization toward creating a trauma-informed culture. A trauma-informed organization is one that recognizes the inherent vulnerability of all human beings to the effects of trauma and organizes system-wide interventions aimed at mitigating the negative effects of adversity and stress that are manifested in the clients served and the organization itself.

In selecting the Sanctuary Model, University Settlement is also aware of the fact that there is no real independent standard for “trauma-responsive organizations.”  The Sanctuary Model is the sole exception: administered through the Sanctuary Institute, the Sanctuary accreditation process is a three-year training and policy/procedure review curriculum involving training of all staff, volunteers, and community members/partners.

After completing the training, the agency then must pass a series of standards to achieve accreditation in the model.  There are currently about 200 Sanctuary-accredited agencies in the country, but only a handful in Ohio (a notable exemplar in northeast Ohio is the Positive Education Program, or PEP). University Settlement believes that the Sanctuary Model provides a rational basis for assessing the trauma-responsiveness of individual organizations, and that we should therefore adopt this best-in-practice approach to ensure depth and sustainability of care.   

To learn more about the Sanctuary Institute, please click here.