Despite decades of progress in resolving conflict and advancing human rights, millions of people around the world are vulnerable to violent conflict, torture, human trafficking, violent extremism, and forced displacement. Today, violent conflict is at a 50-year high and more than eighty million people globally are forcibly displaced facing hunger, trauma and suicide.
Addressing the effects of trauma in conflict and post-conflict settings
Promoting Psychological and Social Repair
The Challenge
Our Approach
Chronic stress and trauma impact individuals at a deep psychological and physiological level that have profound individual and social costs. Left unaddressed, these wounds can affect entire communities and social networks creating barriers to conflict prevention and resolution.
Our research and design innovations bring evidence based and community led tools to enable long lasting and measurable conflict prevention and harm reduction impact.
Our Current and Upcoming Projects
Beyond Conflict has partnered with Glasswing International to support building “trauma-informed ecosystems” across Central America, as part of Glasswing’s Audacious Project. Beyond Conflict is working closely with Glasswing to design tiered training programs and interventions that will be used by more than 100,000 police, hospital, and education personnel in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras over the next 4 years to reduce the impact of trauma and violence in communities in the three countries.
The Field Guide for Barefoot Psychology (TFG) is a trauma-focused psychosocial program that uses storytelling, psychoeducation, and self-care exercises delivered across 12-15 sessions by trained peer facilitators to (1) clarify why and how adverse experiences can affect the brain, body, and social behavior, and (2) ameliorate the negative effects of stress and trauma and promote help-seeking behaviors. TFG was externally evaluated by The New School and the University of California for use among refugees in Jordan and has been shown to cause sustainable improvements in mental health stigma, PTSD symptoms, and emotion regulation.
In 2021, Beyond Conflict partnered with the United Nations Development Program to integrate mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) into preventing and countering violent extremism in Central Asia. Beyond Conflict has been providing technical assistance to UNDP country offices to mainstream mental health and psychosocial support into national extremism prevention agendas and has been accompanying partners through the science-informed design of projects that use psychosocial support as the focus for preventing extremism.