HONORINGLIFE® PROGRAM
Alpert Jewish Family Service’s HonoringLife®Program is a complimentary, 50-minute comprehensive training, on Person-Centered, Trauma-Informed (PCTI) care to service providers of Holocaust Survivors and their families.
What is the format of the HonoringLife® training?
When attending an HonoringLife® presentation, you first see a picture of a very old man, his kind and gentle face belying the brutality he experienced in the Holocaust. Next to him is a picture of the boy he was at about 8 years old, smiling shyly, wearing an old-fashioned suit coat and, on the left breast, a yellow Star of David. The Nazis had deemed him, “not worthy of life.” As the presentation continues, there is a discussion of trauma, triggers and how caregivers can avoid re-traumatizing Holocaust Survivors.
How does HonoringLife® training help caregivers?
The HonoringLife® program makes a strong argument for the application of PCTI care to other traumatized populations. It takes a special sensitivity to care for people who, as children or teenagers, were wrenched suddenly from parents and siblings, never to see them again. These were children who might have been on the run and gone into hiding; who went hungry and slept in fear; whose homes and communities vanished; who lost possessions and security; and who saw death all around.
Our training equips caregivers with techniques that enable them to provide that special sensitivity and ensure the PCTI delivery of care and services to Holocaust Survivors. In Jewish life, there are frequent admonitions to remember the six million dead. What HonoringLife® asks of all of us is to care for the living: the dwindling thousands of survivors who escaped the atrocities of the Holocaust.