Time for Reflection

Submitted by: Sarah Yanosy, Director of the Sanctuary Institute

The New Year is a time for reflection as well as a time for resolution. Although I find that my resolutions to cut calories and go to the gym never seem to last longer than my first cruise past the refrigerator, this year my goals are going to stick. I am confident of this for several reasons. First, the goals I have this year feel much grander and more important than simply fitting into a smaller size. Instead, I pledge to create more and richer opportunities for our Sanctuary Network Members to connect with each other in service of changing how injured people receive care.  I also pledge to use technology to do this in a way that is fiscally responsible for all of us through an interactive website we are constructing as I write this.

Second, I am confident that these goals will come to fruition because I have a team of geniuses who will help execute them.  Our Sanctuary Institute has changed its structure a bit to include two new full time faculty as well as the continued engagement of many of our existing faculty to build our infrastructure.  I expect that new eyes, new voices and the strength of experience in practice will propel us forward in creating these avenues for engagement among members.  In fact, I expect that it will provide a new way to harness and disseminate the expertise of our faculty as well as practitioners of Sanctuary all over the world.  Third, it is time.  Simply put, our members need us to offer multiple venues for learning and collaborating. Our face to face gatherings are foundational to the work we do  – Sanctuary is at its core a relational intervention – but in order to supplement face to face training and consultation, we are building a web interface that will allow practitioners to attend webinars, download documents, listen to recorded lectures and post comments and questions. In this economic environment and age of technology, we too need to stretch ourselves.

The final reason for my confidence that this year’s resolutions will hold is the snowflake theory. Individually, snowflakes are soft and extremely delicate, but when huge groups of them get together, they become a true force of nature. As our Sanctuary Network has grown to include over 200 organizations, each with its own staff of human snowflakes, we are blanketing our communities with trauma-informed practices that are changing lives. With the support of our faculty and the feedback and guidance we expect from our Network members, I hope we can harness this power to nurture growth and change, challenge and success for our community of practice.  Happy New Year!