{"id":39,"date":"2009-10-15T16:14:53","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T20:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/blog\/peacebuilder\/?p=39"},"modified":"2012-02-06T10:50:49","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T14:50:49","slug":"expanding-galaxy-of-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2009\/10\/expanding-galaxy-of-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding Galaxy of STARs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Founded initially as a program to assist religious leaders and other caregivers in New York after 9\/11, the demand for STAR is growing so fast, program director Elaine Zook Barge spends much of her time identifying and training new facilitators for STAR.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In 2008, there were 23 STAR sessions held in seven states and two countries. In 2009, 33 STAR sessions \u2013 a 30 percent increase in one year \u2013 have been scheduled in seven states and four countries.<\/p>\n<p>STAR \u2013 which stands for Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience \u2013 seems to meet a vast array of needs. In December 2007, five Russian citizens affected by the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis in Chechnya (where 334 hostages died) came to EMU and took STAR, with the help of an interpreter. Twenty people from Pakistan sought to come to a September 2009 STAR held at EMU, but were unable to get visas. One CJP MA alumnus <a title=\"Ali Gohar\" href=\"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/cjp-alumni\/ali-gohar\/\">Ali Gohar<\/a>, a Pakistani national, thinks he has the solution to that problem: find funding to bring STAR to Pakistan. South of the U.S. border, STAR is being embraced by people hardened and traumatized by struggles against organized crime in Mexico \u2013 10 STAR sessions have been held or scheduled in various locations in Mexico in 2009-10, always in Spanish.<\/p>\n<p>In the United States, Jubilee Partners of Georgia hopes to use STAR to improve its work with refugees, who often arrive traumatized by violence in their home countries. In Michigan, the Christian Reformed Church is exploring STAR as a tool to help church leaders address racism within their church.<\/p>\n<p>Variations of STAR have been developed for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>youths aged 14 to 20<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>villages with low literacy levels (using pictures instead of written words)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>veterans of war<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>groups involved in historical traumas, such as the descendants of slaves and the descendants of slave-holders (see article on facing page).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2160\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2160\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2160\" src=\"\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2010\/12\/Jan-Jenner-300x181.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2010\/12\/Jan-Jenner-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2010\/12\/Jan-Jenner.jpg 610w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2160\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jan Jenner, MA &#039;99, Director of CJP&#039;s Practice &amp; Training Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jan Jenner, director of CJP\u2019s Practice &amp; Training Institute, has been involved in STAR since its inception. \u201cIt\u2019s been humbling and gratifying to see how many individuals have found STAR helpful in their personal and professional lives, and how many communities have benefited as a result,\u201d says Jenner. \u201cSTAR touches deep places in people\u2019s souls. As importantly, it provides knowledge and skills for working through deep hurts held by individuals and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the current challenges is finding funding to offer STAR to community and church leaders wanting to help returning veterans and their families. Says Barge: \u201cSTAR could help vets and their families better understand the \u2018wounds of war\u2019 and discover wellsprings of resilience and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founded initially as a program to assist religious leaders and other caregivers in New York after 9\/11, the demand for STAR is growing so fast,&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2009\/10\/expanding-galaxy-of-stars\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Expanding Galaxy of STARs<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[130,204,356,622],"issues":[787],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resources","tag-christian-reformed-church","tag-elaine-zook-barge","tag-jubilee-partners-of-georgia","tag-star","issues-fall-winter-2009-10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4743,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/4743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}