The Sanctuary® Model is a trauma-informed approach to creating community and healing for survivors of traumatic events. It provides intervention strategies, organizational and structural principles, and a core philosophical foundation for Jane Addams Place.

Each family at Jane Addams Place has experienced the trauma of losing their home. In addition, research shows that approximately three quarters of women in emergency homeless shelters have experienced severe physical or emotional abuse in their lifetime.

Creating Sanctuary® at Jane Addams Place includes: providing psycho-education about the effects of trauma; asking “What happened?” instead of “What’s wrong?”; involving residents in critical decisions impacting the community; and helping residents build skills for maintaining safety, growing emotion management techniques, processing loss, and envisioning their future. To learn more about Sanctuary® Model, please click here.

Dr. Sandra Bloom, the founder of the Sanctuary Model has written a book, Creating Sanctuary, describing its tenets and the process through which the model was formed. A link to her book can be found by clicking here. According to Gloria Steinem, “Creating Sanctuary” is that rare, original, once-in-a-lifetime book that could save lives.”