From the STAR Team

Alongside many in the STAR community, we want to honor the tremendous resilience required to face the challenges of 2020, ranging from COVID-19 to continuing systemic racism, domestic violence, war and environmental destruction. Each body experiences these challenges differently, depending on variables such as location, experience, history, and access to resources. As we reckon with possibility, vulnerability, and uncertainty, we hope the resources in this newsletter and our trainings offer stories of hope and new ways to engage the tremendous resilience we need in our organizations, our communities, and ourselves. We invite you to check out the resources below on racialized trauma, and we hope they contribute to our collective resilience. In the article, below, we highlight the work of our colleagues, Crixell Shell and Donna Minter, at the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute who are in the midst of one of the epicenters of change in the US. We are grateful for the stories of healing and the resilience practices embodied in the recently released STAR Care Together videos. In the weeks and months to come, we hope to connect with you across distances whether through STAR Online or CJP’s new, low-residency MA in Transformational Leadership. As 2020 continues, may we all continue to attend to trauma and build resilience.

The STAR Team, Hannah and Katie

From the STAR Community

Making Minnesota the Peacebuilding Power State for All

By Gemma Eissa, Communications Coordinator, MN Peacebuilding Leadership Institute

The seeds for peacebuilding in Minnesota started growing years ago. As a neuropsychologist, Donna Minter saw unhealed psychological trauma as a public health epidemic that nobody was talking about. After attending the STAR Training at EMU in 2008 to learn a framework for talking about individual and collective trauma, Donna brought the training to Minnesota in June 2010. She started with a cohort of 25 individuals from a diverse breadth of backgrounds. STAR’s concepts resonated with Crixell Shell, who was in the original cohort, and the two of them have been walking this path together ever since. The Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute (i.e. Peacebuilding) has now trained over 4,000 people and this journey has taken Crixell and Donna places they had never dreamed of. 

From the first STAR Training in Minnesota, a lot has changed. “What started as a spark has turned into a movement,” Crixell described. “People are hungry for this information. We’ve moved beyond ‘trauma informed’ as a buzzword to respond to essential shifting in our community due to George Floyd’s murder by police. Our conversations include racial justice and equity, and trauma is no longer something for solely the privileged to speak about—it’s for all of us.” Donna agrees. “Trauma is not something that should only be spoken about behind closed doors in a psychotherapy office.” Both acknowledge we are moving into spaces of more acceptance for STAR’s transformative concepts and strategies.

Peacebuilding’s future is bright. “As our community wants STAR, we will provide it,” Donna says. However, she clarifies that Peacebuilding’s mission is not to be gatekeepers of information but to empower all to engage in the work. Crixell wants trauma-informed and resilience-oriented restorative justice strategies to be a part of everyday vocabulary and actions. With Minneapolis’ leaders’ commitment to re-envision policing, Crixell and Donna view STAR’s strategies as a foundational resource. Peacebuilding creates space in communities to learn shared history, build connections, heal wounds, and take nonviolent actions together for transformation.

Crixell and Donna know that, "Authentic peace is based on justice. Creating a just society isn’t just about stopping issues like violence—it’s about being proactive and building peace within our spheres of influence.” We welcome all in Minnesota and beyond to learn STAR strategies to transform psychological trauma into nonviolent power to fulfill the vision of making America the peacebuilding power nation for all.

STAR Releases Care Together Videos

"What helps you build resilience?" During the early days of the pandemic, STAR participants and partners spoke openly and honestly about their healing journeys with trauma and resilience. In a series of videos, eleven STAR trainers, practitioners, and former participants brought their stories and shared how they build resilience, including short practices you can do at home. Watch the Care Together video series.

STAR Online: Coming Fall 2020!

We are working now to re-create STAR training to be accessible at a distance. By late July, we will be announcing information about STAR Online and how individuals can sign up. Look for more information in your inbox or on our website soon.

New MA in Transformational Leadership

Every organization and every community needs transformational leaders who can empower, inspire, and support others during challenging times. The new MA in Transformational Leadership program nurtures students to see possibilities when others see only problems. Check out this 2-year limited-residency program.

• Zehr Institute webinars on Restorative Justice. Particularly relevant now: We came to learn: The fight for police-free schools with Jonathan Stith. 
• Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice by Fania Davis.
• A free course on racialized trauma offered by Resmaa Menakem’s Cultural Somatics.
• My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, a book by Resmaa Menakem.
• The Peacebuilder podcast, especially an episode featuring Dr. Johonna Turner: Colorizing Restorative Justice.

emu.edu/star | 540.432.4651 
1200 Park Road Harrisonburg, VA, USA

STAR is a program of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University.