A community with great needs

The inner-city streets of Philadelphia are filled with hurting people who are desperate for help. A great majority of citizens from minority groups experience deep feelings of inferiority from years of systemic exclusion from the goods enjoyed by mainstream culture. This chronic stress contributes to and underlies the impact of other traumas. In urban northern Philadelphia, more than 40% of the residents subsist at or below poverty level. Many live in broken families and must daily deal with violence, crime, a dangerous drug culture, multi-generational unemployment, and abuse.

According to the statistics, 17% of the people here are unemployed, 21% have no health insurance, and 71% of males and 62% of females do not finish high school. This community holds the fourth highest HIV/AIDS rate in the U.S. But statistics alone do not adequately describe the pervading despair that saturates life here.

"Theresa" is truly a survivor. As a young child, living in a rural setting, her family split, and she was given away to whomever would take her. This involved strangers, friends, and distant relatives. On any given day, she might be moved from one home to another. Her story is a succession of suffering: psychological abuse and unimaginable emotional neglect. Despite this painful history, she managed to bring up children of her own, who now are grown and raising their own families.

Since most of her childhood years were spent unsupervised with no one to nurture her, she engaged in behavior that left her deeply scarred, with deep feelings of shame. Desperately, she sought help from other local mental health centers, but she says, "It was a waste of time. I never quite developed the level of trust and the mutual respect I needed in those experiences."

"At Refuge, I feel totally understood and accepted." One day, after a session, Theresa asked if she could remain in the office for a little while. That little while turned out to be several hours. She tells us that she felt so safe that she just did not want to leave.

In many cases, those fighting for survival do not have the resources or tools to deal with the complex problems they face.

According to Judith Herman, M.D., an author and a leading expert in trauma, "Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims." Trauma is one of the most formidable barriers to producing and maintaining healthy, engaged citizens capable of making quality contributions to society.

Social services offered in these communities are often not of a high professional quality due to poor funding, high caseloads, turnover, and burnout. Many people here simply do not trust the services that are available. Refuge's model incorporates a common-sense approach to counseling — integrating existing professional counseling models with a faith component capable of reaching people in truly meaningful ways.

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Caregivers, pastors, and lay leaders in Philadelphia are hungry for training and resources to help the hurting. We are joining hands with professionals from across the city to help. Through the years, the leaders of The Place of Refuge have developed a unique kinship with pastoral leaders, enabling them to enter into the suffering of many lives in their communities. We provide support groups, educational seminars, a lay-counseling training program, and mentoring for over-worked and weary social service professionals and urban pastors.

The target service area for The Place of Refuge is North Philadelphia, but already we are seeing clients coming from all corners of the city, predominantly among the Hispanic population. We believe that faith-based work carried out in partnership with local people can unite professional and grassroots leaders to provide high-quality services that give help, healing, and hope to the hurting.

Permission was obtained, and names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.

Maria was tormented by death. Death had taken away everyone she loved — parents, aunts, uncles, best friend, co-workers, even her pastor. She cried many tears, and depression and loneliness sapped her very soul. By the time a local pastor referred Maria to The Place of Refuge, she had already tried to take her life twice.

We offered Maria professional and culturally sensitive counseling to address her clinical depression, grief, and emotional needs. We partnered with her local church to help them give appropriate care during this time of turmoil.

Week by week, month by month — over the course of two years — Maria's focus gradually shifted from her losses to her future. Today, her tears have been wiped away. That is what The Place of Refuge is all about: ministering to underserved urban people with professional counseling services and partnering with local churches to help them better support those in their community.

"The gift you give is that in the midst of your words and care, I find safety. And slowly I begin to discover God who, at first, is in the midst of your safety — and then I realize, is the safety."