Offerings

Current Offerings

Community Emergency Response Team Course for Faith-based Organizations

Wheaton College’s Humanitarian Disaster Institute and the Milton Township’s Citizen Corps are partnering together to offer a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Course for Faith-based Organizations. This is a free course for those who live and work DuPage County. The course is aimed at training and equipping volunteers to respond to and meet the needs of DuPage County’s citizens during a disaster. Participants completing the training will become certified by the state. We encourage students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the greater community to take part in this unique training opportunity. The course will meet for 3 hours each of the following Thursday evening: Sept 12, Sept 19, Sept 26, Oct 3, Oct 10, Oct 17, and Oct 24.

Learn more and register for this course >>

Disaster Leadership Workshop

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute would like to invite faith and community leaders, along with others interested in church-focused disaster preparedness, to the Disaster Leadership Workshop being held at Wheaton College on June 4-8, 2013. This workshop will lead to a Certificate of Completion. The primary aim of this workshop is to equip pastors and church leaders to be able to lead their congregations in developing effective disaster ministries. Workshop participants will learn: how churches can make their members and communities more disaster resilient; the theology behind church engagement in disasters; specific plans, programs, and resources to help your church become disaster ready; global models of church-based disaster resilience, and much more.

Symposium on Poverty and Resilience

Join the Justice Coalition, Humanitarian Disaster Institute, Global Urban Perspectives, The Urban Studies Club, and Bread for the World for a screening of “The Line,” a powerful documentary on poverty in America. The film portrays the personal stories of four Americans living below the poverty line, including a former business executive in DuPage County. After the screening, you will have an opportunity to discuss your reaction and hear from several Wheaton professors and a local spokesperson for Bread for the World, a grassroots Christian advocacy group working to reduce hunger and poverty. You will also hear about and have an opportunity to take action. This event will be held at Wheaton College in the Phelps Room of the Beamer Center on Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Past Offerings

Disaster Chaplaincy Forum: Disaster Leadership in Japan

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute supported the third disaster chaplaincy forum in collaboration with the Japan Evangelical Association for Japanese church leaders in Toyko, Japan in February 2013. This forum focused on disaster leadership, and specifically on how to lead a team in a disaster situation. Next steps include HDI assisting in the creation of online tutorials for Japanese clergy by supplying information and materials (e.g., tip sheets) related to psychological and spiritual first aid, assessment and intervention, and disaster leadership.

Disaster Spiritual and Emotional Care in Professional Psychology

This workshop will introduce an integrative approach to disaster spiritual and emotional care in professional psychology. Practice guidelines for integrative disaster spiritual and emotional care are offered, as well as a series of diverse examples of faith based disaster interventions. Theological and integrative implications are also raised, as well as thoughts on how disaster spiritual and emotional care will contribute to the future of integration. Wednesday, January 30, 2013, Regent University.

Learn more about this workshop >>

Symposium on Child Slavery and Trauma in Haiti

Wheaton College's Humanitarian Disaster Institute (HDI) in partnership with the Restavek Freedom Foundation is hosting a symposium on child slavery and trauma in Haiti at 7 p.m. Tuesday, January 22 in the Phelps Room of the Todd M. Beamer Student Center.

Learn more about this symposium >>

Disaster Chaplaincy Forum: Building Church Networks in Japan

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute participated in the November Chaplaincy Forum in collaboration with the Japan Evangelical Association for Japanese pastors in Tokyo, Japan in November 2012. HDI provided: 1) case study background information on disasters and disaster response based on experience in Hurricane Katrina disaster relief; 2) instruction on disaster spiritual and emotional care assessment and interventions; and 3) training on building church networks for disaster preparation and response.

"Don't Give Up on Me: Interrupting Urban Violence and Poverty"

The documentary "The Interrupters" will be shown at Wheaton College at 7 p.m. Friday, November 9.  Film director Steve James and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz created the documentary by following the lives of three community activists fighting to interrupt the violence haunting the city of Chicago.

Learn more about this event >>

Faithful Readiness

On November 7, 2012, the American Red Cross, Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, the Federal Emergency Management Agency Region V and State and Local Partners representing Northeastern Illinois, Southeastern Wisconsin and Northwest Indiana invite faith-based and community leaders, preparedness experts and practitioners for a one day training/workshop for leaders of faith-based and community-based organizations, state and local governments and the private sector in follow up and support of the DHS Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Faithful Readiness effort for those wanting to prepare themselves and their communities for all types of emergencies.

Learn more about this training workshop >>

Essential Skills for Child Case Manager Workers in Haiti

 This three day workshop took place from October 30 to November 2, 2012 and focused on basic skills for the staff of NGOs working with children in Haiti.  Each day was devoted to one of three essential areas for child management workers:

• Day One: Essential Skills in Child Case Management
• Day Two: Helping Skills for Child Case Managers
• Day Three: Staff Self Care, Teamwork, and Stress Management

 The program targeted a reduction in reported staff stress and trauma and a related reduction in burnout.  This was accomplished by equipping staff with key skills for management and emotional care of children, and equipping them with skills and strategies to make the workplace safer and less stressful while also increasing peer support and teamwork.  This was the first in a series of workshops to achieve these aims.

Disaster Chaplaincy Forum: Disaster Spiritual and Emotional Care in Japan

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute participated in the first disaster chaplaincy forum in collaboration with the Japan Evangelical Association in July 2012. This forum was held in Tokyo, Japan and focused on raising awareness among Japanese clergy about the importance of disaster spiritual and emotional care, as well as the strategic role the Church can play by assisting disaster survivors in this manner.

Haiti Workshop on Spirituality Oriented Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Wheaton College’s Humanitarian Disaster Institute, in collaboration with Regent University’s Child Trauma Institute, Restavek Freedom Foundation, and le Centre de Spiritualité et de Santé Mentale, will be offering a week long workshop in Port-au-Prince, Haiti at the University of Notre Dame of Haiti Medical School June, 2012. The workshop will focus on training Haitian mental health professionals in a culturally adapted evidence-based trauma intervention to help treat children rescued from child servitude or slavery situations.