Our Model
An Integrated Community-based Social Healing model
UCP’s model is delivered through Community Healing Assistants (CHAs), trusted community members who complete 216 hours of training in trauma recovery, group facilitation, mental health, ethics, Breath–Body–Mind (BBM) practices, and safeguarding, under professional supervision. Once trained, CHAs lead 15-week Healing Circles of 15–20 participants, meeting weekly for 2–3 hours. These circles integrate:
Breath–Body–Mind practices, Tree of Life methodology, Cultural rituals,
After completing the 15-week journey, participants transition into saving circles, where they put their savings together and start to support each other emotionally, socially, and economically beyond the program.
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Breath-Body-Mind (BBM) exercises are a set of evidence-based, trauma-informed practices that use breathing techniques, gentle movement, and guided relaxation to help regulate the nervous system and restore emotional balance.
Developed from neuroscience, psychology, and traditional mind-body practices, BBM exercises are designed to be simple, accessible, and culturally adaptable, making them suitable for individuals and communities affected by stress, trauma, and adversity.
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Studies show that traumatic experiences can disrupt a person’s sense of self, memory processing, and ability to make meaning of their life story. Trauma can also narrow attention toward threat and loss, reinforcing feelings of helplessness and isolation.
The Tree of Life method works to counter these effects by helping participants reconstruct a more balanced narrative of their lives—one that integrates adversity while emphasizing agency, survival, and connection.
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Healing rituals are culturally grounded, structured practices that use shared symbolic actions—such as song, dance, drumming, poetry, storytelling, and collective reflection—to help individuals and communities restore a sense of belonging, meaning, and emotional safety. These rituals draw on familiar cultural traditions, making them immediately recognizable and psychologically accessible within the communities where they are practiced.
Rituals support psychological healing through symbolic expression, especially when traumatic experiences are difficult to put into words. Actions such as writing down feelings of shame, guilt, or loss and then burning the paper help individuals safely externalize and release distress. This process reduces emotional intensity and supports a sense of closure, control, and inner integration.
HEALING CIRCLES
Healing Circles, known in communities as Imenye Wigire, are safe, structured group spaces led by trained and trusted Community Healing Assistants (Abubatsi b’Amahoro). Over a 15-week journey, groups of about 20 participants meet weekly for guided dialogue, Breath-Body-Mind practices to regulate stress, and Tree of Life storytelling to process traumatic experiences together. Through shared reflection and culturally rooted methods, the circles help restore emotional wellbeing, strengthen social bonds, and rebuild a sense of belonging.
Saving Circles
When a group completes its healing cycle, members transition into self-help savings groups known locally as Imenye Wigire Saving Circles. These groups continue to meet, but now the focus shifts from emotional recovery to economic growth.
Circle members begin to pull resources together by saving small amounts collectively, and over time, they use these funds to support one another by purchasing an item that each household needs. Some buy livestock, building materials, and household essentials, and more. Members stay together as each other's support system long after the program ends, continuing to show each other solidarity, emotionally and financially.
