HOPE Champion uses Type 2 Thinking to see her strengths and PCEs
Shor Denny, now a HOPE Champion for San Diego State University (SDSU)’s Social Policy Institute, was surprised by her own response to a positive childhood experiences (PCEs) exercise held at the institute. They asked her to go through a list of seven PCE questions and at first she was stuck, because she didn’t feel she had any.
“When I first saw those seven questions…[it] was sad for me, because I had to sit there and go, ‘Oh my God. None of these were in my life,’” said Denny. But Denny is a trauma-informed life coach, facilitator, and trainer, and she knows that having lived through trauma affects people’s outlooks.
“I believe that trauma changes your perception of reality,” she said. And as such, when someone who has lived through trauma is asked to examine a situation, she said, their mind can go straight to the negatives.
This way of thinking is called Type 1 Thinking, which can often lead to a deficit mindset. The HOPE framework encourages Type 2 Thinking which can help people see the strengths in a given situation. Denny said that during the exercise she was encouraged to stop, breathe, and re-examine.
“When I started using Type 2 Thinking…I was able to pull…pieces out of my past that actually I came to realize were those pearls, those pieces of hope that were put into my life that helped me to be as Brazilian as I am.”
She said the HOPE framework “literally changed the way I think.”
Denny feels that the HOPE framework is not a brand new idea, but rather an “update” to the ACEs model.
“[ACEs] got stunted in the institutions and in the doctor’s office. I feel HOPE is where it can actually do the work of healing and making people think in matters of hope rather than [despair].”
Promoting connection and engagement with formerly incarcerated students
Her reverence for the HOPE framework shows up in her work with two different projects at SDSU. One is called Project Rebound, an organization within the university that works with formerly incarcerated students and supports them as they pursue their college education. The roughly 100 students in the program all participate in the Introduction to HOPE workshop where they learn PCEs and the Four Building Blocks of HOPE. Of those 100 students, a handful will get even more training and become HOPE Facilitators so they can spread HOPE even more within the organization.
Denny said that for Project Rebound, she wanted to focus on relationships and engagement, which are two of the Building Blocks of HOPE. So she looked through existing literature to find ways to measure those concepts and put together a needs assessment to get a temperature check on how students feel about them. Ultimately, she created a roadmap for how to increase connection and engagement within that student population.
Using the HOPE framework to improve loneliness for first year students at SDSU
She has used the HOPE framework in similar ways for WAGE, a year long intersectional feminist community for first year students. The WAGE students reported struggling with loneliness, and Denny’s task is to figure out what kind of programming can support them.
“[A professor] did an exit survey last year, and it came up with a lot of loneliness. She thought that she could use HOPE to support improving loneliness and connection within her students,” said Denny.
Similarly to Project Rebound, Denny developed a needs assessment using measurements for loneliness, and incorporated responses from the exit survey. She then worked with the professor to create activities that go along with the curriculum. One activity that was implemented was a buddy system, something that did not already exist at the school. Students in the program are assigned a buddy and are encouraged to do things together, like attend campus events.
“It does seem to be going positively,” said Denny. She said some people don’t get along, but on average, students report that it is helping with loneliness and disconnection.
Incorporating the Four Building Blocks of HOPE into racial and social justice trainings
In addition to her HOPE Champion role at SDSU, Denny does racial and social justice work, including educational training with different organizations on historical and present-day racism.
“What I’m looking at now is how to incorporate the [Building] Blocks into racial justice…How do we bring HOPE into that conversation?
Denny sees the role of the HOPE framework in all of her work as necessary.
“I don’t see a future without it.”
