The Sanctuary Model represents a trauma-informed method for creating or changing an organizational culture in order to more effectively provide a cohesive context within which healing from psychological and social traumatic experience can be addressed.

The Aims of the Sanctuary Model:

• Increase perceived sense of community/cohesiveness through the active creation of a nonviolent environment

• Increase degree of “social immunity” to the spread of violence

• Increase capacity for “social learning”.

• Increase democratic decision-making and shared responsibility in problem-solving and conflict resolution

• Ability to deal with “complexity”

• Provide an opportunity for all clients and staff to experience a truly safe and connected community

• Provide an opportunity for troubled clients to have corrective emotional, relational, and environmental experiences

• Reduce episodes of interpersonal violence including verbal, physical and sexual forms of harassment, bullying, and violence on part of staff and clients

• Reduce critical incidents

• Improve staff/leader job satisfaction

• Reduce staff turnover

• Improve client satisfaction

• Promote recovery, healing, growth

The Sanctuary Model is presently being applied to a number of settings including: adult inpatient and outpatient mental health settings; residential and acute care settings for children and adolescents; substance abuse programs for adults and for children; schools, shelters for those who are homeless and for victims of domestic violence; and community-based as well as school-based social service organizations.

	Click here for publications related to the Sanctuary Model
	Sanctuary Institute, the official training for the Sanctuary Model
	Members of the Sanctuary Network
	Components of the Sanctuary Model
	Seven Commitments of Sanctuary
	Outcomes of the Sanctuary Model
	History of the Sanctuary Model
	Sanctuary Model of Organizational Change
	S.E.L.F. - the Implementation Tool for the Sanctuary Model
	To order the S.E.L.F Trauma-Informed Psychoeducational Curriculum
	Legacy of Trauma
	Adverse Childhood Experiences Study
	Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice

When you walk into a school, a hospital, a workplace, a home, how do you know you are safe? Do security guards, metal detectors, armed guards, security checks, guns, bars, locks, alarm systems guarantee safety? Although attempts to assure safety by physical means may be necessary, they are never sufficient. To achieve true safety it is essential to recognize that there are four domains of safety:  

The goals of the Sanctuary Model are to guide an organization in the development of a trauma-sensitive culture with seven dominant characteristics all of which serve goals related to trauma resolution and that model good relational and parenting skills:

Why two acronyms? We began using this conceptual framework with adults and we liked the idea of adults becoming wiser - becoming SAGEs. When we extended the work to children, they needed simpler concepts AND we liked the idea of children developing a healthier sense of SELF. So, throughout our work and throughout this website you will find references and articles related to both, but the four key concepts are the same. Click here for articles related to SAGE and SELF.

 To order the S.E.L.F Trauma-Informed Psychoeducational Curriculum

   Sanctuary Institute

The foundations of the Sanctuary Model are multidimensional, grounded in principles of the therapeutic community and include:

•  Biological/medical perspectives: Trauma Theory
•  Relational/social: Social learning, attachment and the need for community
•  Educational: Emotional literacy, psychoeducation
•  Political: Democratic processes, human rights
•  Philosophical/Ethical/Spiritual: Values-based, nonviolent, visionary, explicit moral purpose, complexity theory

The Sanctuary® Model is an approach to organizing the delivery of services to human beings by human beings, all of whom function within group settings.

•  The Sanctuary Model takes into account and respects individual differences between people while still recognizing that group processes exist – both conscious and unconscious – whenever people come together to complete tasks.
•   Parallel group processes can serve or can undermine the intentions and goals of the individuals within the group and the group-as-a-whole.

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Copyright © 2008 The Sanctuary Model
Last modified: 05/23/08