Barry Hart was one of the founders of STAR. Both faculty and staff at the Center for Justice and Peace building at EMU. STAR was created as a response to the needs of caregivers after 9/11. Church World Service asked them to develop a program to meet this need—STAR was the result.
Segment 1: Barry Hart’s Bio and Journey
Barry Hart was in the military and was also in the anti war movement during the Vietnam War after he got out of the military. By attending an art school in France, this opened Barry’s heart and eyes to both religion and seeing art as a way of seeing the world. After that, he started Seminary and a halfway house that led to mediation work in Virginia. Things evolved and emerged from there.
His trauma work started in Liberia. Christian Health Association of Liberia asked Barry to start a trauma, healing and reconciliation program with his conflict resolution background literally from the ground up learning has he went. This experience led him to develop STAR which was created as the response to the need of caregivers after 9/11.
Segment 2: Peace building Wheel
Peace building is very complex so the Peace building Wheel was invented. The Peace Building Wheel was meant to promote just and sustainable social and economic and political structure and relations. 10 Sections are included in the wheel. When wheel is balanced out in intervention, progress in peace will made.
Segment 3: Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is seeking to heal and put right the wrong. The concept of seeks to heal is to figure out what we are trying to heal. Healing the trauma of the experience? The high stress of the experience? There is physiological stress, psychological stress, spiritual/emotional stress. It's a whole range of things going on for people and of course depending on the type of crime, it can be extensive and deep wounds that occur. The whole concept of restorative justice is yes, restoring the relationships between people potentially but also restoring the self.
This segment is one not to miss as Barry and Doug discuss further discuss the bond and trust between our fellow human beings.
Segment 4: CARE International and the STAR program
In this segment, Barry share with us more about CARE International and the STAR program. Barry was a facilitator working with 2 groups of women. One Croat and one Bosnia group. At the time, Croat was the majority. CARE worked with each group separately and the 2 sides wanted to meet in a neutral setting. Both groups met. Through the workshops, they were prepared and the majority of the women embraced each other. They had known each other, prior to the war. The women spent 2 hours together talking. In the discussions, they learned they wanted to be together and set up a business. They indicated they wanted to set up a legal group so the could have political and legal power in their own context. An NGO gave the women 3000 chickens so they can start their own poultry business. This created a wonderful beginning.
The STAR program was started after 9-11. This was set up to work with caregivers/first responders. The faculty and staff decided to start a holistic program of what to do with the recovery process by looking at restorative justice.
Listen to this segment to learn more about Barry’s fascinating and important work.
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