About the Sanctuary© Model

In May 2011, Baker Victory Services was certified as a Sanctuary© Model service provider. At the time of this certification, there were only 25 other agencies in the world who were also certified.  The Sanctuary© Model represents a theory-based, trauma-informed, evidence-supported whole culture approach that has a clear and structured method for change. We use this model as a way to create a safe environment, where emotional and psychological healing can occur.

What is the Sanctuary© Model?

• Dr. Sandra Bloom developed the model over the last 20 years.  It was developed for traumatized adults in inpatient hospital settings and has been adapted for residential treatment, school, group homes, foster care, juvenile justice, outpatient and community based settings.
• The Sanctuary© Model is the way we organize both our treatment and the way we run our organization.  We call Sanctuary an EVERYBODY Model because it is a way of guiding leaders, staff and children and families to share the same values and language.
• The Sanctuary© Model is a guide to the way we provide healing to children and those that care for them.  It is also a guide to the way we run our organization.
• The Sanctuary© Model is first and foremost a guide for creating a safe and nonviolent environment for the clients in our care AND the staff that care for them.
• The Sanctuary© Model is a guide for forming and maintaining a therapeutic community that promotes safety and nonviolence as the basis for everything we do to help people heal.
• The Sanctuary© Model is the way we organize and maintain organizational culture.
• The Sanctuary© Model guides everybody across an organization, from the leaders to every person who provides direct care.  Organizational Safety is the way we help clients and their families and the way our staff maintains our working environment.

Why do we use Sanctuary?

Sanctuary is based on an understanding of trauma and how it affects individual clients as well as whole systems or organizations.

• We believe that most children who come for treatment in our settings have experienced trauma and can benefit from trauma-informed care.
• We believe that working with traumatized clients is very stressful and can lead to agencies becoming “trauma-organized”.

A Change in Perspective

The Sanctuary© Model is a treatment and organizational model that is based on understanding trauma and its impact on individuals and organizations.  The Sanctuary© Model is a continuous process that creates healthy, therapeutic living communities for our residents, as well as healthy, therapeutic working communities for staff and partners.  It is very important to understand that although there are specific concrete tools used in the Sanctuary© Model, it is a continuously evolving process.  It challenges each individual involved in the life of a child to examine old models of thinking, behavior management, conflict resolution, and crisis intervention and begin to develop a trauma-informed view and approach to working with traumatized children.