Trust-Based Relational Intervention®, or TBRI, is an advanced intervention process “designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children.” It is a tool developed by Karyn Purvis and David Cross at Texas Christian University and focuses on caring for “children from hard places.”

To some degree, we’ve all experienced trauma. However, children who enter the foster system have been taken from their families due to various negative circumstances, often quite horrible ones, and thus from a very early age have experienced trauma like abuse or neglect. This often results in children being mentally and emotionally (and thus behaviorally) behind their peers; a seven-year-old may mentally and emotionally be a three-year-old, for example. Left unchecked, the consequences include extreme mental and emotional incapacitation. 

These children need loving and safe homes to heal and become kids again. At 1HOPE we train our families in TBRI because we need to rethink how to parent children from hard places and help them grow and develop healthy attachments and relational bonds. It takes an incredible amount of patience and time to build trust between a parent and a foster child before they can feel comfortable and secure. Discipline will often look different than what an adult may have experienced when they were children.

“TBRI is packed-full of content that equips adults for connecting with kids. No matter how much or how little experience you may already have, TBRI is for every adult who has influence in a child’s life. If you want to add tools to your tool belt while shifting your perspective and expectations of how kids “should” behave, JUMP in on this opportunity to grow for yourself and for the kids in your life.”

-Delayna W., 1HOPE foster mom

Training is long and often spans several evenings and possibly most of a Saturday. Meals, snacks, and childcare are provided. Training consists of a series of lectures and group activities designed to equip foster parents with practical tools for caring for their children, even their biological children. All of our staff have gone through the training and sometimes use it at home. 

“As not just new foster parents, but new parents in general, this was very informative and effective. The unique strategies were extremely helpful in not just helping children deal with certain behaviors, but also get to the root cause and help us grow a relationship of trust with them. It was not just a training for dealing with children, but dealing with ourselves as well.”

-Miguel A., 1HOPE foster dad

It is an investment but it is one of the most practical tools we offer for our parents. We attempt to have quarterly trainings, so if you are licensed with 1HOPE stay tuned to our emails or social for the next class.

Here are three main ways you can help:

Become a 1HOPE Defender

Defenders answer a call from the Lord to serve children in foster care through prayer and recurring monthly donations. For $30 a month or more, you can be a 1HOPE Defender and help provide cranial forming helmets, braces and orthodontia, additional therapy, diapers, and medical expenses.

Volunteer

Not everyone is called to foster, but everyone can help. We have an amazing team of volunteers who help foster families and children through:

• Prayer

• Tutoring

• Notes of encouragement to families

• Meal ministry and Door Dash gift cards for when life makes it especially tough

• Certified babysitting

• Transportation

• Diaper delivery

Open your home

We need safe and loving homes in which to place children in the foster system. We need families to get licensed so they can be the light of Christ to children in need. Interested in learning more? Start here.