This curriculum is designed for an intensive ten-week program utilizing Kids Club, Trauma Education Classes for caregivers and Individual/Family Counseling Sessions but is adaptable for one-hour a week counseling sessions. In addition, those who are trained will be able to utilize the Trauma Education Classes as a caregiver class without the other components if desired. Those who desire to run the full program should bring two people to the training. You will need one person to run the caregiver class and another person to run Kids Club. If you plan to run the whole program by yourself, you will need to offer the Trauma Education Classes and the Kids Club on separate nights. Please remember, you are welcome to attend the training and use the components in such a way that accomplishes your mission and aligns with the rights and responsibilities. You do not have to be clinicians to use portions of the program. 

The material is designed for the foster and adopt population. For those interested in being trained in our Prevention Curriculum designed for families involved with DHS and/or at-risk, it is a two -phase curriculum. For more information, please read about Making Sense of Your Worth (phase one). Phase two is called Parenting for Positive Self-Worth and is also based on TBRI®. Please let us know if this is something you are interested in and we can send you more information. Email cindy@haloprojectokc.org.

HALO Project was created in 2013 out of the overwhelming need for healing expressed by foster and adoptive families. These families made the choice to foster and/or adopt and verbalized how the children in their care were experiencing extreme behavioral and emotional dysregulation. Traditional parenting methods and traditional counseling settings were not proving to be successful in meeting the emotional needs of this population. While in search of best practices nation-wide, HALO Project founders, Jennifer Abney, Cindy Lee and Amy Gray, discovered Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®) developed by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross at the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University. TBRI® has years of research behind it and was shown to be highly successful in assisting foster and adoptive families in the healing process.

After being trained in TBRI® in 2012, Cindy R. Lee, LCSW created the HALO Project, which is a unique program format for administering TBRI®. Due to the intervention being done in this unique format, Cindy sought council from Dr. Purvis and Dr. Cross at TCU’s KPICD throughout the process to maintain fidelity to the model. Special permission was granted by the KPICD to create the model and to train in the model.

The HALO Program is a 10-week intensive intervention for foster and adoptive families based on TBRI®. HALO currently serves children ages 3-17, 8-12 and Teens. HALO runs multiple program sessions per year. We have a separate sixteen week prevention program for our at-risk families. 

HALO Program activities can be divided into three categories: Trauma Education Classes (TEC), Halo Kids/Teen Club, and Family Sessions. All-together, the family receives 50 hours of therapy during the 10 weeks (20 hours of group for the parents, 20 hours of group for the children, and 10 hours for each individual family together.)

Trauma Education Classes (TEC):
Caregivers participate in 10 weeks of Trauma Education Classes. Classes are limited to 12 caregivers and each class is 2 hours in duration (from 6:00-8:00PM.) Classes teach connecting, empowering and correcting principles and rely heavily on TBRI® DVDs, experiential exercises, group discussion and role-play. TEC is facilitated by a licensed therapist.

HALO Kids/Teen Club:
Children participate in HALO Kids Club once a week for 10 weeks. HALO Kids Club occurs at the same time as the Trauma Education Classes for the adults. Each child is paired with a buddy, which is a volunteer member of the community with a heart for children from hard places. HALO Kids Club activities are designed to teach feelings expression, self-regulation, and life value terms associated with TBRI®. Kids Club is facilitated by a licensed therapist. 

Family Therapy Sessions:
Caregivers and child participate in family therapy sessions once a week for 10 weeks (and additional weeks if needed.) These sessions focus on teaching connection through child-led play using the TBRI® Connecting Principles, problem solving specific behaviors, and role-playing TBRI® skills learned in class. In addition, trauma processing through the use of storytelling, play therapy, providing education and therapeutic life books is also included. Specific trauma processing modalities the therapist is trained in such as EMDR or IFS etc. are also used.

Buddy Training:
Buddies are volunteers and participate in a 1-day training prior to the start of the program. The goal of the training is to provide insight into children who have experienced relational harm which includes a discussion about trauma and the brain. Buddies are also briefly taught the principles of child-led play. A background check is done on each buddy.

HALO is offered to families free of charge at HALO Project International. If possible, insurance is billed for the family sessions. Supplies are donated by individuals within the community and HALO Project International is privately funded by foundations and private donors. Although we hope to not charge families for this service indefinitely, we recognize that we will need to develop a diverse funding source to ensure the longevity of the program. HALO Project International is a 501 (c) 3.  Those trained in this curriculum outside of our organization often charge fees for the service. It is required that fees remain within the industry standard and are not excessive in any manner. We expect those being trained to charge those they serve at a reasonable rate.