Sanctuary Community Members click here

Overview of the Application Process
Click here to view.

Does your agency's leadership spend more time:

In the The Sanctuary Institute, these questions will frame an intensive five day workshop that will help your organization's leaders reclaim a culture of hopefulness and innovation. The Institute is an intensive and transformational process that will require deep commitment and participation from your organization's leadership, but the rewards will be both powerful and measurable.

Organizations committed to working with troubled individuals all face enormous stresses. Unfavorable financial, regulatory, social and political environments can adversely impact organizational functioning and make us lose sight of the mission, goals and values that should guide our work. Over time, stressed systems can become reactive, change resistant, hierarchical, and coercive. In fact, the organizations themselves may begin to exhibit PTSD symptoms similar to those of their clients, creating a trauma-organized culture.

The Sanctuary Model® is an evidence-supported template for system change based on the active creation and maintenance of a nonviolent, democratic therapeutic community in which staff and clients are empowered as key decision-makers to build a socially responsive, emotionally intelligent community that fosters growth and change.

The Sanctuary Model has been effective with children and adults across a range of human service organizations, including residential treatment centers, public and private schools, domestic violence shelters and drug and alcohol treatment centers.

Using the Sanctuary Model will enable your agency to:

The process of implementing Sanctuary begins with an on-site visit. One of the SLDI faculty will come to your site to interview leadership, staff, and clients to obtain baseline information about your agency. The site visit is organized to look for strengths and areas of needed improvement in relation to specific Sanctuary criteria. This first step will give your agency insight into how Sanctuary might enhance its service to clients as well as improve staff morale and shift from a trauma-organized culture.

After the site review, your agency will select members of its leadership team to attend a five day training at the Andrus Children's Center. This institute training includes both didactic and experiential leaning modalities. Lectures by Dr. Sandra Bloom include detailed exploration of the components of the Sanctuary Model: the seven Sanctuary Commitments, psychobiology and parallel process. Participants are also instructed on specific implementation steps and concrete tools for bringing the Sanctuary Model back to agency sites. The five day training also incorporates break-out times for agencies which include a series of activities and facilitated discussions to explore the specific challenges and strengths your agency may have in implementing the model.

At the conclusion of the five day training, your agency will begin the process of implementing Sanctuary at your site. You will have the scheduled technical support of the SLDI faculty for the first three years of your implementation. SLDI will send faculty to your site periodically to make presentations, provide staff training or provide other consultation. Your agency will also receive support for implementation from other agencies who are using the model, a group referred to as the Sanctuary Community of Communities. As agencies across the country are using Sanctuary, SLDI is setting up a network to allow them to share their experience and innovation with each other. In this way, agencies can count on long term support as well as a process to ensure fidelity to the model among all of the agencies practicing Sanctuary.

To date, The Sanctuary Institute has trained agencies throughout the United States and in Latin American on the Sanctuary Model.

White Fields, in Oklahoma City , OK and the
Pace School in Pittsburgh , PA
Monarch, Inc. in Muskogee , OK
Eagle Ridge Family Treatment Center in Guthrie, OK
Jordan 's Crossing, Inc. in Oklahoma City , OK
Oklahoma Youth Center in Norman , OK
Norman Adolescent Center in Norman , OK
Jewish Child Care Association in Pleasantville, NY
MercyFirst in Syosset, NY
Astor Home for Children in Rhinebeck, NY
Glove House in Elmira , NY
St. Catherine's Center for Children in Albany , NY
Vinita Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center in Vinita, OK

Uta Halee / Cooper Village in Omaha , NE are among the organizations in the U.S. that are currently engaged in implementing the model.

Juconi has organizations in Mexico and Ecuador that have participated in The Sanctuary Institute.

People are talking about the Sanctuary Model...
Participants describe the five day institute training:

“This week has been the beginning of my professional healing.” – Beatriz Vides, Director of Child Care at the Astor Home for Children

“The week changed everything for me. I am looking at everything so differently now. I am scared but more hopeful than I have been for some time. Thanks so much.” - Candace Tinagero, Senior Vice President of Jewish Child Care Association

“I've heard about Sanctuary, but I had no idea how amazing this was going to be." – Joan Bender, Director of Training and Professional Development at St. Catherine's Center for Children

"I'm looking forward to the journey." – Nancy Atkinson, Director of Program Development at mercyFirst

The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare ranks the Sanctuary Model as an Acceptable / Emerging Practice. Click here to learn more.  

If you think your program is a candidate for this opportunity or you would like to learn more about the Sanctuary Model, please contact Sarah Yanosy, LCSW at syanosy@jdam.org or 914.965.3700 ext 1117 for more information.