July Special Offering: Cleveland Christian Home

I was having lunch with a long-time supporter of the Cleveland Christian Home several years ago now, and he startled me when he said, “There are some people who would not want to help our boys….they [our boys] are the kind of boys who would egg your house, scare your kids, terrorize your pets… they show bad judgement and have a short fuse.” He shocked me in saying this, given his generosity, but he continued on. “They do the things they do so that they can survive, but it seems that once they start down that path, they can’t seem to shift gears.” 

This friend was right. This is what trauma does to our brains if we don’t address it—it literally changes how our brains receive and compute information. The sound of a car coming up the drive may be a signal that you had better put whatever you are doing aside because violence is going to erupt as soon as whoever is in that car comes through the door. Every time that child hears a car, his proverbial—and sometimes literal—fists go up.

Our work is to help kids address fear, anger, or whatever difficult emotion they are experiencing before a fight-or-flight response sets in. All of us know the feeling of panic; it’s physiological, and our brains tell our bodies what to do. Reason is gone, logic is gone, sensibility gone. But there are tell-tale signs: prickly hairs on the back of your neck, sweaty palms, fast heartbeat.

The CCH team teaches the children to tune in to those things, harness that energy, and use it to help themselves calm down with breathing, self-talk, exercise, drawing, journaling, listening to music—being mindful of the signals in their bodies that are flashing red lights for danger.

Help us to be the green light of hope, safety, and discernment. Survival is a wonderful skill but it’s no way to live.

Judith Mansour

Chief Development Officer

Cleveland Christian Home