A Letter from the Director,
Ya’ll, it has been a year! Actually it has been a “several” years of one disaster after another, nature made or human made. In the last few years, I have accompanied several international trauma response trips with other trauma specialists. We have worked hard to join and equip locals in Ukraine, Cameroon, Poland, and other regions to be able to respond to the disasters around them with more resilience, strategy and grit.. without losing hope in humanity.. often times a very hard endeavor in times of war. My love for missions and disaster response is as old as me, growing ever stronger as the world is ripe for harvest. What myself and colleagues experience is an increasing need for disaster response preparedness locally, nationally, and internationally. In our times of increasing havoc, there is an urgency to bring a unified community together, to equip and train local professionals, first responders and volunteers to respond in healthy, strategic, and sustainable ways. This is the heart and purpose of the Beautiful Minds Project Academy for Trauma Studies and Disaster Response and we are extending a formal invitation to you!
Come join us at the Academy!
The Academy is a fellowship of people-loving adventurers created for community first responders and volunteers with a vision to create connection through education, experiential training, and disaster response. We are based in Colorado Springs, Colorado but our doors are open to all!
I want you to join! Be part of healing humanity by first equipping yourself. Here, you will find confidence to respond to the needs of the community you belong to.. with resilience and grit, with joy and with others.
The Academy is a space created to bring together like-minded and like-hearted people who want to connect in fellowship with others, who want to learn and become equipped to respond to local, national and international disasters with excellence, who want to serve from a place of resilience and post-traumatic growth, and who want to experience joy, altruism and deep meaning. We believe in accompaniment, in long term strategic partnerships, in drinking coffee, sharing stories and eating food together.
The Academy specifically aims to equip the local community professionals, first responders, volunteers and anyone interested in psychological first aid and disaster response, through experiential educational trainings, certifications and adventure-disaster deployment trips.
We are officially offering trainings throughout the year of 2024 that are accredited by the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology, that fulfill partial requirements for several certifications with the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology. Use this link to read about GCAT membership https://greencross.org/membership/ and Levels of Certifications /https://greencross.org/training-ce/certifications/.
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Upcoming Trainings!
8:30 AM– 4:30 PM MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE – IN PERSON AND VIRTUAL
Topic: Towards Professional Resilience! Compassion Stress Management and Compassion Fatigue Practitioner- Learn to combat toxic stress, prevent and resolve burnout and so much more! 14 CEU’s
(This is a required training for Beautiful Minds Project Trauma Team and to be eligible for deployment. Fulfills training requirement for the Green Cross Compassion Fatigue Educator Certification and the Green Cross Compassion Fatigue Therapist Certification)
Early Bird Registration Price Until November 24th: $198
After November 24th: $249
(All proceeds from this training are supporting a trauma deployment team to Asia in February)
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8:30 AM– 5:00 PM MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE – IN PERSON AND VIRTUAL
Disaster Trauma (Field Traumatology Course) 14 CEU’s
In this training workshop emphasis is placed on stages of disaster working within the incident command system and the needs of survivors. Practical application and response is highlighted to provide each participant with the knowledge and skills necessary to lessen the negative impact on individuals and families in the aftermath of a natural or human caused disaster or critical incident.
(This is a required training for Beautiful Minds Project Trauma Team and to be eligible for deployment. Fulfills training requirement for the Green Cross Field Traumatologist and Clinical Traumatologist Certification)
Early Bird Registration Price Until February 24th: $198
After February 24th: $249
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Travel with Beautiful Minds Project!
In order to travel and deploy with the Beautiful Minds Trauma Team, www.beautiuflmindsproject.world, all participants are required to be at minimum Certified Field Traumatologists in addition to each deployment trip specific requirements. We are deploying to Ukraine in May 2024 and Cameroon tentatively later 2024. As, hopefully, the wars in these countries come to their ends, the need for rebuilding will continue, possibly for the rest of our lives. With this in mind, we plan to train and take yearly teams to join war and disaster broken communities in repairing and rebuilding from the inside out. This is the work of accompaniment. In the words of Paul Farmer,
“To accompany someone is to go somewhere with him or her, to break bread together, to be present on a journey with a beginning and an end…There’s an element of mystery and openness….I’ll share your fate for awhile, and by ‘awhile’ I don’t mean ‘a little while.’ Accompaniment is much more often about sticking with a task until it’s deemed completed by the person or person being accompanied, rather than by the accompagnateur.”
We are building on the shoulders of giants like Dr. Farmer, Dr. Keyes, and many others. If you would like to join this great adventure, come train with us, come fellowship with us, come travel with us, come be with us.
Sincerely,
Dr. Alina and Team
