What do we mean by trauma?
We understand trauma as the emotional and physical harm resulting from a lack of effective control or power amid vulnerability and uncertainty where life feels destabilized or threatened. Trauma affects individuals, communities, and societies’ bodies, brains, beliefs, and behaviors. Whether it be a horrifying event, sudden loss, social displacement, violent conflict, natural disasters, the adverse impact of societal structures, or other traumagenic situations, trauma effects individuals, families, communities, and societies. Left unprocessed, it can fuel continuing cycles of harm and prevent sustainable rebuilding. We believe individuals and communities are resourceful and can collaborate to address the impact of trauma and cultivate resiliency.
What do we mean by social displacement?
Social displacement happens when abandonment, despair, and feeling out of place all come together in a loss of social and cultural identity. It is a state of being without any sense of place or effective means of orientation, is an all-consuming displacement and a traumatic experience.
For us, social displacement results in broader concrete realities aligning with Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25:31-46. There he says, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.” We believe the six descriptions of neighbors Jesus mentions—the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned—translate into twelve concrete realities of social displacement experienced by our neighbors in our U.S. context. We call this the Twelve Descriptions of Social Displacement.
- Houseless
- Insecurely Housed
- Subsidized Housing
- Substance Use Challenges
- Differently-Abled Intellectually, Developmentally, Physically, and Medically
- Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated
- People of Marginalized Cultures
- Unaccompanied Youth and Aging Out of Foster Care
- Senior and Widowed
- Domestic Violence Survivors
- Immigrant
- Refugee
We believe everyone belongs. We believe everyone deserves to find a community and place they call home.
By home we mean something more than a house. A house is a building; a home is a dwelling place. A house is made of wood, brick, mud, or thatch; a home is made of stories, relationships, and memories. Houses can be bought and sold, but home is never up for sale. Home is a bounded place that provides both definition and openness, structure and flexibility. It is a place and space, a web of stories, symbols, rituals, and relationships where a common life is cultivated and human flourishing happens. To us, home is a place of inhabitation where life is oriented toward a life-giving narrative and where restoration is made possible in every human dimension—socially, emotionally, cognitively, spiritually, and physically.
Stories of Gracious Hospitality
The best way to catch a glimpse of how the 3e Restoration Process transitions neighbors living through social displacement toward holistic sufficiency is to listen to their stories.