"Healing Circles" Good Option for Youth Trauma

Deborah Bayliss | As of Thursday, May 15, 2014

“Healing Circles are attempts to address the trauma youth have dealt with by offering support from other youth to help resolve a situation."--Will Pettis, program director for the YMCA of Metro Chicago’s Youth Safety and Violence Prevention at the South Chicago YMCA, 3039 E. 91st St.

Imagine being surrounded by gangs, gun violence, death, drugs, poverty, and abductions ...with no way to escape. Sadly, that’s the everyday reality for many African-American youth. This situation, experts say, left unchecked, perpetuates the above mentioned community ills.

In response to this calamity, the YMCA of Metro Chicago offers a viable solution by providing a form of counseling for at-risk, inner-city youth in the way of “healing circles” through its Youth Safety and Violence Prevention program, a concept derived from Ancient African and Native American methods of conflict resolution where individuals sit in a circle and talk about what's on their mind and then listen to and offer feedback on someone else’s situation.

“It’s a proven (method) in conflict resolution,” said Will Pettis, program director for the Youth Safety and Violence Prevention program at the South Chicago YMCA, 3039 E. 91st St. “Healing Circles are attempts to address the trauma youth have dealt with by offering support from other youth to help resolve a situation. We emphasize that we’re here to help and that we have each other’s back and that what’s talked about in the circle, stays in the circle.”

Ryan Lugalia-Hollon, co-executive director of the YMCA of Metro Chicago’s Youth Safety and Violence Prevention program said, “One key factor is that hurt people hurt people,” as he referred to the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, an ongoing collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest nonprofit health plan.

According to the ACE study, the largest scientific research study of its kind, with over 17,000, mostly middle income American participants, focused on the relationship between childhood trauma and the risk for physical and mental illness in adulthood, that stressful or traumatic childhood experiences can result in social, emotional, and cognitive impairments such as increased risk of unhealthy behaviors, risk of violence or re-victimization, disease, disability and early death, something many Chicagoans experience day in and day out.

"What’s unique about our program at the YMCA is that we work with outreach workers and bring the circle practice to them. To put a circle in place, you need real infrastructure commitment and to work with communities, said Lugalia-Hollon "

When asked how they measure results, Lugalia-Hollon said, “We do pre-surveys and we profile the kids and keep track of them. There’s a level of self-efficacy and school engagement that can tell a lot about a young person as well as youth arrests. At a minimum we work with them for three months. We target those most likely to get caught-up in violence. Not every young person makes it on a first try. We serve about 55 youth a year, for at least six months. We get kids coming to us as a safe haven so our early involvement is about protection for some of the kids in gangs. We offer kids a safe space. A lot of it is creating a different norm with positive re-enforcement and meaningful caregivers.”

It appears nowadays that, some youth have accepted violence as a way of life.

“It’s difficult to deprogram that thought,” said Pettis. “A lot of these youth are growing up in single-parent households with no father figure and feel that it doesn’t matter whether they have a father figure or not but we tell them that it does impact them and that if they don’t feel it now, they will see it later.”

Pettis said he’s lost two of his circle members as recent as April 2014.

“These kids realize that when they leave their homes in the morning, they may not make it back home,” Pettis added.

To get youth involved, the YMCA uses “attention getters” such as an opportunity to participate in YMCA’s ‘Hoops in the Hood basketball tournament. However, different young people are drawn to different programs. Pettis also walks through the neighborhood and passes out his business card while explaining the program to youngsters.

Groups and organizations who want to create their own healing circles can contact the YMCA for advice on how to set up.

For additional information, contact the South Chicago YMCA’s program and Will Pettis at (773) 418-8280.

Currently, Healing Circles are operating in:

· Logan Square

· Humboldt Park

· Little Village

· Pilsen

· South Chicago

“With the right financial support, we’d love to bring our models to North Lawndale and East Garfield Park,” said Lugalia-Hollon.

For more information, please call Ryan Lugalia-Hollon at 312.860-0097.