Part of the NPHI Family Services’ mission is to “promote a loving, respectful, secure, non-violent and threat-free home environment that honors and fosters the child’s dignity as the highest principle”.

CPI Participants doing group work during a training

Our entire NPH family works to make this possible in many different ways, toward the end goal that each child feels loved and secure in a safe home environment and can develop his or her full potential.

This past February, twenty-eight staff members representing all nine of our NPH home countries arrived in Honduras to participate in the ‘Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® Instructor’ training from CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute).

Using a hands-on and interactive approach, CPI Instructors Matt Peot and Alyssa Nogaski taught how to prevent and manage difficult crisis situations and respond to disruptive behaviors that could happen in the home. Just a few training topics included understanding the factors and behavior that could lead to a crisis and learning nonviolent techniques to keep the kids and staff safe.

CPI Participant from NPH Mexico and Donna Egge, Director of Family Services

One of the principle themes of the week was how to stop crisis situations before they start. Donna Egge, Director of Family Services, comments, “The more we can reduce the likelihood of escalating behaviors through effective prevention models, the more we can focus on the important relational aspect of our work, which is caring for our children and youth.”

All of the themes discussed during the week align with the core philosophy of the CPI organization: Care, Welfare, Safety, and Security℠.

Matt was a volunteer in NPH Mexico years before he became a Global Professional Instructor with CPI.

CPI Instructors Matt and Alyssa

He describes the importance of the training for NPH, “It provides essential skills for the most difficult moments that caregivers might encounter. It offers a framework for decision-making that is rooted in a philosophy that dovetails flawlessly with Father Wasson’s (founder of NPH), and it helps staff understand how to live that philosophy when pequeños engage in disruptive, challenging, or even dangerous behavior.”

The reality is that NPH serves children who have unfortunately experienced traumatic events in their young lives, and that crisis situations and difficult behavior may have been commonplace before NPH.

CPI participants from NPH Honduras (left) and NPH El Salvador (right)

Mercedes Montes, the Psychology Department Coordinator in the NPH Honduras home, shares why the training is important for the NPH employees, “…we (the NPH staff) will be able to use same language, it will reinforce the importance of teamwork and we will decrease the risk of traumatic experiences for the kids in crisis situations.”

At the end of the Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® course on February 27th, participants were certified as instructors, and are now called to share their knowledge and train more staff in the homes. This way the skills and information shared in Honduras in February will stay alive in the homes and help NPH caregivers and staff maintain a safe, secure and loving place for the kids to live.

CPI Group Participants from the NPH Homes