HOW WE DO WHAT WE DO
Even when the youth have lost all faith and trust
for their future, TRP never gives up on addressing the root
cause of trauma and urban violence impacting their lives.
They can count on us to keep showing up even during
setbacks. That's how we've been able to build trust over
the years giving our youth the tools and support
to change the trajectory of their lives.
OUR INTERVENTION MODEL
1
CREATE SAFETY AND STABILITY
We do relentless outreach and build transformational relationships with young people to develop the foundation for change. We meet basic needs, make meaningful connections, and provide moments feeling free from harm.
2
TEACH LIFE-SAVING SKILLS
We teach a relatable and simple version of cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) in the streets, so young people can slow down, disrupt negative cycles, and take control over their lives.
3
PRACTICE SKILLS, RELAPSE, AND REPEAT
We create tailored employment, education, and life skills programs that serve as spaces for young people to change, relapse, and change further. Not when they are “ready” to participate, but while as they still struggle.
4
ENGAGE INSTITUTIONS AND SYSTEMS
We relentlessly reach out to system partners, build relationships, and jointly practice new skills that produce better outcomes for young people and communities.
1
CREATE SAFETY AND STABILITY
RELENTLESS OUTREACH
It’s what TRP is most known for – and it works. We reach out to young people while they are in crisis, instead of waiting for them to have an epiphany, drop their guns, or remove themselves from dangerous relationships and situations. We track them down through their friends, call them, show up at their doorsteps, and scout the streets until we find them. It takes an average of 10 relentless efforts to find a young person, and it can take hundreds of attempts until they make it to our program.
TRANSFORMATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Whether young people like us or not, whether they want to be with us or not, we know that deep and meaningful relationships can support them and push them over time to make critical changes in their lives. Honest conversations about the risks of dropping a gun or the fear of losing custody of one’s child can’t happen without a deep relationship – one that is strong enough to have difficult and uncomfortable conversations with young people, hold young people accountable, and challenge their thinking. This intensive form of case management over a period of 2 years is the foundation of the change process at TRP.
2
TEACH LIFE-SAVING SKILLS
COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THEORY (CBT)
CBT is a way to understand how situations affect what we think and say in our head, what we feel in our bodies, and what we do in response. Practicing CBT helps us identify a cycle, stop, use a skill and make a choice instead of reacting.
CBT IN THE STREETS
DISRUPTING URBAN VIOLENCE BY ADDRESSING TRAUMA FIRST.
TRAUMA AND THE BRAIN
Trauma is fear that never turns off. It sends our brain into survival mode as if the brain is responding to a threat, just like the brain functioned when the traumatic incident initially occurred.
In survival mode, the pathways to The Thinking Brain are cut off – the brain focuses on survival (“fight, flight, freeze”), lets the Limbic System and Brain Stem take over, and is not open to learning or change.
3
PRACTICE SKILLS, RELAPSE, AND REPEAT
All of TRPs programs are designed as learning experiences. In Transitional Employment, for example, each young person is fired and re-hired 2-4 times on average (and some up to 7 times) before successfully completing the program.
Why? Young people cannot fully access new opportunities without regulating their emotions and dealing with their trauma. They need trauma-informed life skills, educational, parenting, and employment services that meet them where they are and allow for mistakes and relapses.
TRP is not a jobs or an employment program, but rather an organization responding to the pain and trauma of young people by offering life skills as well as Behavioral Health services to those struggling to make sense of their lives on the rough Chicago streets – if they don’t learn and practice CBT skills by the time they learn a job, it will be too late. We provide them the space to do something different while practicing these critical life-saving skills.
4
ENGAGE INSTITUTIONS AND SYSTEMS
TRP doesn’t wait for system partners to come to us or to be ready to do things differently. We approach systems change using the same principles that help young people – and all people – change. First, we identify people within systems who are directly facing urban violence. Then, we build meaningful relationships, have hard conversations, expect setbacks to be part of the change process, and always work toward better outcomes.