Cultural Sensitivity Training

Imagine stepping into a world completely hidden in plain sight. For roughly 60,000 people living in strict fundamentalist communities throughout our region, life is defined by total isolation from the modern world. When an individual or family makes the brave choice to leave, they aren't just changing their address—they are stepping across a cultural chasm into a completely foreign reality. This training is designed to prepare you to stand on the other side of that chasm as a safe, understanding, and compassionate ally. Instead of treating this transition like standard community volunteer work, this course opens a window into the deep psychological, theological, and emotional realities our clients carry with them. Throughout this training, you will explore the complex framework of fundamentalist cultures, learning to distinguish between groups like the FLDS and the Kingstons. You will learn why a client might arrive on our doorstep with absolutely no money, no ID documents, and zero modern life skills due to communal systems like the Law of Consecration. More importantly, you will look beneath the surface to understand the heavy emotional toll of their upbringing—including a perfectionist mindset that forces them to deeply repress their trauma, and a learned survival mechanism that makes building outside trust a slow, delicate process. With staggering statistics—including the reality that 84% of our clients experience PTSD—this course uses trauma-informed principles to reshape how you interact. You will learn the profound truth that our clients experience a conflicting dual reality of extreme grief and extreme relief. Finally, you will walk away with quiet, powerful, real-world protocols: how to dress, how to shape your body language during a nervous intake meeting, and how to patiently let a client lead the way from isolation to true independence.