Taking a ‘both-and’ approach – wayne centrone
Our work is a bit complicated.
Through our collaborative partnerships, we are helping to train teams of trainers who will train thousands of health care professionals in Perú. In one respect – we provide direct services to train healthcare providers in newborn resuscitation – and we are also helping to build the infrastructure and standards that will support training for many years . . . and save countless lives.
We take this same “both-and” approach with our work in our Casa Girasoles program. Our Casa Girasoles program provides holistic, integrated support for children who have experienced trauma, neglect, and abuse. We provide direct services to over 50 children. Our work with the children is about creating healing connections. It is healing by connecting with our hearts.
Taking care of children who have lived through the experience of homelessness and abandonment is amazingly gratifying work. However, providing a place for them to live, clothes to wear, and access to education is not enough. We need to support the full development continuum for children who have endured tremendous challenges. We need to build pathways to futures.
We are equally called to create models of care that can prevent childhood abandonment and endangerment – and prepare child welfare workers to bring the best evidence-based care delivery to millions of children worldwide.
I know this sounds like a really grandiose undertaking. It is. Helping to reshape an entire child welfare system and provide holistic support is something we are uniquely positioned and prepared to accomplish. We have learned that healing with your hearts and our heads makes all the difference.
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