{"id":5690,"date":"2013-05-24T11:11:25","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T15:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=5690"},"modified":"2013-05-28T18:01:52","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T22:01:52","slug":"good-intentions-arent-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2013\/05\/good-intentions-arent-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Good Intentions Aren’t Enough’ in International Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of documentation that interventions from the outside can do more harm than good,\u201d says Lisa Schirch<\/strong>, the director of 3P Human Security and a research professor at EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a> (CJP). \u201cGood intentions aren\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that awareness in mind, many humanitarian and development organizations do trainings to develop \u201csensitivities\u201d \u2013 conflict sensitivity, gender sensitivity, environmental sensitivity \u2013 to influence the way their staff design and implement projects. Joining the list recently is \u201ctrauma sensitivity,\u201d as articulated by former STAR director Carolyn Yoder <\/strong>in an article <\/a>first published in Monthly Developments<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

\u201c[International] agencies were often very, very eager to rush into communities that had been deeply affected by violence without having any real understanding of how [their work] could re-traumatize people,\u201d says Lauren Van Metre<\/strong>, dean of students with the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).<\/p>\n

STAR is being tapped to provide trauma-sensitivity training and develop other projects in Washington D.C. In addition to helping participants avoid unintentionally doing harm, STAR helps people rotating through field work to manage their own traumatic responses to extremely difficult work situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NGOs and the military are looking for trauma programs, and we\u2019ve got one that\u2019s 12 years old, and it\u2019s proven,\u201d says Elaine Zook Barge<\/strong>, current STAR director.<\/p>\n

As an example, USIP found that its rule-of-law assessment teams working overseas began to report back that their investigations into traumatic events were causing fresh pain for the people they interviewed. STAR and USIP collaborated for a first training in September 2012, with another scheduled nine months later at USIP headquarters in D.C.<\/p>\n

Van Metre says the STAR training at USIP has been particularly valuable for people who have been affected by their extended stints in conflict zones. Through its peacebuilding academy, USIP has also developed its own two-day training based on the STAR methodology.<\/p>\n

In a 2009 interview with the U.S. State Department\u2019s Bureau of International Information Programs, former CJP trauma studies professor Nancy Good<\/strong> said all relief and development workers can benefit from trauma training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re doing our jobs if we\u2019re sending people out to do this really important work and are only training them on things like how to work with building houses and acquiring clean water and sanitation,\u201d said Good, now a wellness consultant with the Washington D.C.-based KonTerra group. \u201cWe need to [provide] workers [with] basic knowledge and skills for stress management, trauma healing and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of documentation that interventions from the outside can do more harm than good,\u201d says Lisa Schirch, the director of 3P Human… Read more about ‘Good Intentions Aren’t Enough’ in International Aid<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[1000,204,1102,404,469],"issues":[1100],"class_list":["post-5690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magazine","tag-carolyn-yoder","tag-elaine-zook-barge","tag-lauren-van-metre","tag-lisa-schirch","tag-nancy-good","issues-spring-summer-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690","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\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5690"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5692,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5690\/revisions\/5692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5690"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=5690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}