Trauma-Informed Care

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The Sanctuary Model of Care

Crossnore Communities for Children is a certified Sanctuary organization.

This is a treatment and organizational framework for creating trauma-informed communities. The Standards were developed by The Sanctuary Institute in collaboration with Dr. Sandra Bloom as a way of measuring adherence and fidelity to the practices and philosophy of the Sanctuary Model in human service organizations. The Standards serve as a tool to determine if an organization or program meets the qualifications for Sanctuary certification. Crossnore was certified as a Sanctuary organization in 2011 on the Avery campus.

7 Commitments with an Anti-Racist Framework

Written by our Evolve committee, these commitments help guide our internal work to ensure that we are operating as an anti-racist organization.

Open Communication

We commit to communicating openly and honestly about racism and equity. As an agency, we will distribute accurate information and foster environments where silence, personal biases, and microaggressions can be confronted in a meaningful way. We will create brave spaces where everyone is welcome to learn and advocate for themselves and others.

Nonviolence

We acknowledge overt, covert, and systemic forms of racism as violence and commit to actively resisting all forms of racism. We will recognize and address violent language, symbols, and actions, including micro-aggressions, implicit biases, and race-based community violence. We understand silence as violence and, therefore, will actively and boldly pursue an organizational culture that creates an inclusive sanctuary for our clients and our staff that celebrates and affirms all racial and cultural identities.

Shared Governance

We will acknowledge and address biases and imbalances of power. We will develop shared decision-making and shared leadership where voices, reflecting our communities, contribute to the emergence of new and creative ideas. We commit to being aware of and focused on voices that are considered both central and marginal. Leadership will share power and elevate others by ensuring adequate and diverse representation on all teams.

Social Responsibility

We recognize that ending structural and systemic racism is all our responsibility, and we commit to advancing our individual and collective efforts of being an antiracist organization. We recognize our responsibility to acknowledge, report and respond to interpersonal, structural, and systemic racism within our agency, the child welfare system, and our communities.

Social Learning

We are open to learning from the diverse experiences and knowledge that each community member contributes. We commit to identifying areas of personal growth as we challenge our current thoughts and behaviors. We commit to walking into brave spaces, which may be uncomfortable. We will recognize our complicity in harmful action and/or inaction and will stay open to growth.

Emotional Intelligence

We commit to being aware of how we show up in shared spaces. We affirm our feelings and those of others as valid and will acknowledge our emotions during times of forward progress and challenge. We will take care of ourselves and ask for help. We will accept accountability for our actions and our expression of emotions as well as their impact on others.

Growth & Change

We honor the systemic and historic adversity and losses associated with racial trauma. We recognize that we cannot move forward until these experiences are acknowledged, both on an organizational and individual level. We commit to interrupting systems and patterns of racism and oppression. We will work toward becoming anti-racist individuals to collectively dismantle the norms within our organization and community. We envision a future at Crossnore that is equitable, brave, and representative of who we are and who we serve.

Belonging at Crossnore

Crossnore Communities for Children is a non-profit child welfare organization supporting children and families in crisis across western North Carolina. Crossnore Communities for Children is committed to providing a sanctuary of hope and healing by offering a holistic approach to treatment.

Standing in their communities for over 100 years, we acknowledge those aspects of our organization that reflected bias and exclusion. We exist to be a sanctuary for children and their families, we acknowledge that exclusion, lack of diversity, inequities, and racism destroy sanctuary.

We recognize that this is all of our responsibility and we commit to embodying the following principles as our foundation to be a more inclusive community while creating value in a system that sets us apart.

We affirm the lived experiences of our community members and its impact on our mission. We commit to being an authentic partner and being thoughtful in our asks within the community.We commit to engaging with our community members in culturally relevant ways. We will aim to be a reciprocal partner in the communities we sit in.

We affirm freedom of expression, thought and opinion of each person. We commit to nonviolent exchange and promote open expression of individuality and diversity within each interaction.

We affirm that we will be a mutually supportive partner within our community. We commit to collaborating with organizations and donors whose mission is interconnected to our own. We will respectfully challenge resources/opportunities that may be detrimental to the work that we are doing or add to its complexity. (ie: donor wishes/perceptions/hard conversations).

We reject prejudice and discrimintation of all forms, including those based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status. It is our responsibility to eliminate bias and exclusion within each interaction and amplify our understanding by way of education, training and exposure.

We pledge our commitment to the Crossnore community by acknowledgement of these principles within each interaction.

From Our Blog

December 2nd, 2021

February 24th, 2021

September 9th, 2021

racial disproportionality blog photo shows children of all races together

IDEA Steering Committee

In response to the duress facing our nation in 2020, Crossnore staff came together to form the IDEA Steering Committee (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Antiracism). Together this committee will work to improve how we care for our children, each other, and how we engage with external entities, all toward a more inclusive and anti-racist organization and ultimately, community.

The IDEA Steering Committee will be the agency infrastructure to drive social learning, growth and change surrounding all matters of equity, with an initial focus on policies and practices that impact the children, families and communities we serve, as well as our staff and the structures that govern them. This committee will serve as Crossnore’s accountability partner in the advancement of this work. Through education, governance, awareness and accountability we will support one another in the prioritization of tasks from our tactical plan.