Building Trust & Safety
This is the most important foundation for any mentoring relationship, especially with youth who have experienced trauma.
What is TRUST
This Chicago neighborhood on the West side has a rich African American cultural heritage and is home to historical civil rights activism.
What is:
*North Lawndale*
Austin
Garfield Park
These are the 6 key principles of trauma-informed care. Name at least 3
What are:
Safety
Trustworthiness
Collaboration
Empowerment
Cultural Sensitivity
This communication technique involves repeating back what you heard to ensure understanding and show you're listening.
What is:
Reflective listening
Paraphrasing
This ongoing process involves mentors recognizing their own culturally shaped beliefs, perceptions, and judgments.
What is:
Cultural self-awareness
Cultural humility
Name TWO ways mentors can demonstrate consistency to build safety with mentees.
What are:
Showing up on time
Keeping promises
Following through on commitments
Maintaining regular meeting schedules Being reliable with communication
When working with Latino youth, mentors should recognize the importance of this cultural value emphasizing family and community.
What is:
Familismo
Family-centered values
This trauma response might make a mentee seem spaced out or not listening during sessions, especially when discussing difficult topics.
What is:
Dissociation
Zoning out
When working with 7th graders who seem angry, asking this type of question helps them explore their emotions: 'Tell me more about...' or 'Help me understand....'
What are:
Open-ended questions
When mentoring youth in Chicago, research shows that conversations and activities focused on this aspect of identity can improve self-esteem and academic success.
What is:
Cultural pride
Identity development
When a mentee from Chicago shares that they witnessed violence in their neighborhood, this trauma-informed response validates their experience without judgment.
What is:
"That sounds really difficult. Thank you for trusting me with that. How are you feeling about it?"
Active listening with EMPATHY
This cultural practice, common in Black and Latino communities in Chicago involves informal mentoring relationships with family members or trusted adults in the neighborhood.
What are:
Kinship networks
Natural mentors
Rather than viewing a mentee's reluctance to participate as defiance, trauma-informed mentors get curious and do this first.
What is:
Pause
ask questions
seek to understand what the behavior is protecting
validate their feelings
Instead of saying ' You need to calm down,' trauma-informed mentors might offer this type of collaborative statement.
What is:
Offering choices
'I notice you seem upset. What can I do to help?'
'Would it help to take a break?'
This term describes microaggressions, systemic barriers, and bias that youth navigate daily in Chicago schools and communities.
What is:
Structural injustice
institutionalized oppression
This principle means recognizing that behaviors like withdrawal, anger, or hypervigilance are often responses, not defiance.
What is:
Behavior is communication
Understanding trauma response
Name TWO community strengths commonly found in Chicago's neighborhoods that mentors can help youth recognize and build upon.
What are:
Cultural pride
resilience
creativity
faith communities
entrepreneurship
youth activism
strong community bonds
This practice involves mentors doing their own healing work to show up grounded, empathetic, and able to hold space for a youth's trauma without being triggered.
What is self-reflection
personal healing work
understanding your own trauma history
This communication barrier occurs when mentors from different cultural backgrounds fail to recognize their own biases, privileges, or assumptions about their mentees.
What is:
Lack of cultural humility
Cultural incompetence
Rather than being 'colorblind,' culturally competent mentors practice this approach- actively acknowledging and celebrating differences.
What is:
Embracing differences
Rather than asking "What's wrong with you?", trauma-informed mentors ask this question instead.
What is:
What happened to you?
What's going on for you right now?
When a mentee practices this linguistic skill- altering their speech between different contexts- mentors should recognize it as a valuable cultural adaptation, not a deficit.
What is:
Code-switching
When a mentee exhibits fight, flight, or freeze responses during mentoring, this part of their brain has been activated by perceived danger.
What is the:
amygdala
alarm system
limbic system
When a Chicago youth shares experiences with police harassment, profiling, or neighborhood violence; mentors should practice this skill- acknowledging the reality of their experience without trying to 'fix' it immediately.
What is:
Validation
Holding space
empathetic listening
Name THREE ways mentors can demonstrate cultural responsiveness when working with Chicago youth.
What are:
Learning about their cultural background
Incorporating culturally relevant activities
Respecting language practices
Connecting with community resources
Celebrating Cultural heritage