Most children absorb basic social values without noticing. A parent redirects a toddler’s frustration. A teacher models respect before asking for it. By middle school, the lessons have quietly taken hold.
For the children who come to us, that quiet absorption often didn’t happen. Not because they weren’t capable. Because the adults around them were overwhelmed, absent, or dangerous. Children who’ve survived abuse, neglect, or trafficking don’t arrive with broken spirits. They arrive with nervous systems that learned — correctly — that the world is unpredictable and that adults can’t be trusted. What once kept them safe now makes connection harder. That’s the reality we meet every day at Sunny Glen, and it’s why good intentions alone aren’t enough.
That’s also why everything we do is grounded in a specific framework: the trust-based relational intervention values for kids that form the daily language of our entire campus. These aren’t rules posted on a wall. They’re a vocabulary children practice alongside safe adults who reflect God’s unconditional love in every interaction, every single day.
The Framework Behind the Values
Trust-based relational intervention or TBRI is the treatment model at the center of everything we do at Sunny Glen. Developed at the Karen Purvis Institute of Child Development, it’s recognized as a promising practice by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare. It rests on three principles: Empowering, Connecting, and Correcting. It addresses physical needs, builds emotional regulation, strengthens attachment between children and caregivers, and grounds discipline in teaching rather than punishment.
Every staff member completes 19 hours of TBRI training before working with a child. They train a minimum of one hour every month after that. TBRI isn’t a weekly therapy session. It’s the operating language of the entire campus — present in hallway conversations, meal times, and quiet moments just as much as in formal programs. You can read more about who we are and how this framework shapes our approach.
The Trust-Based Relational Intervention Values for Kids We Teach Every Day
Ten values are woven through every part of life at Sunny Glen. Staff reference them constantly, in ordinary interactions, so children connect real moments to something they already know.
Be Gentle and Kind comes first because it has to. Before anything else can land, a child needs to know what gentleness feels like — from others and from themselves. Show Respect runs in both directions here. Staff model it before they ask for it, because a child who hasn’t been treated with dignity has no real reference for what respect looks like in practice.
Listen and Obey is taught carefully. This isn’t blind compliance. It’s the slow realization that trustworthy authority exists — that a safe adult giving direction is not a threat. With Permission and Supervision teaches children that some things require asking, and that asking is safe. For children whose boundaries have been violated, that’s genuinely new ground.
Focus and Finish Your Work builds the felt experience of capability. Completing something — anything — gives a child evidence that they can follow through. Use Your Words acknowledges that many behavioral challenges are really communication failures. Children who learned that words weren’t safe need real practice finding them.
Cooperate and Compromise introduces a model of relationship most of these children haven’t seen: one where give-and-take is possible and no one has to fight for everything. Understand Who Is In Charge reduces anxiety. In unpredictable environments, children’s minds run a constant background question — who is safe here, and who is in charge? Answering it clearly and calmly is its own form of care.
Accept No for an Answer is one of the hardest, especially for children who’ve had to fight for basic needs. Learning that “no” isn’t abandonment — and that adults mean both yes and no consistently — takes time and repeated proof. Make Good Choices is the point of all nine that come before it. Once a child has internalized the others, they have the building blocks to exercise real judgment. That’s the goal: not compliance, but people who can choose well.
How We Actually Teach Them
The values don’t teach themselves. Sunny Glen’s TBRI Nurture Groups bring children together regularly to practice emotional regulation, social skills, and the values with trained facilitators. Children earn recognition each week for using TBRI strategies in their daily lives. Staff are specifically trained to look for children doing things right — to name the moments when a child chooses gentleness, uses their words, or accepts a no without falling apart. In a life shaped by what went wrong, being seen for what goes right is not a small thing.
When Behavior Is Really a Need
TBRI holds that discipline doesn’t work when basic needs go unmet. Before correcting behavior, staff ask: Is this child hungry? Tired? Lonely? Overwhelmed? Many behavioral challenges aren’t defiance — they’re driven by physical or emotional imbalance. Tending to the need first changes what the correction has to do. This is a rooted in Christian faith approach: seeing the whole child, not just the behavior. It reflects a belief that every person is made in God’s image and deserves to be met there.
Consistency as Its Own Kind of Love
Children from chaotic backgrounds often have nervous systems calibrated to expect unpredictability. Routine, repetition, and adults who behave the same way on Tuesday as they did on Monday — these aren’t just good management. They’re how the brain slowly learns to trust again. The consistency at Sunny Glen is deliberate. It’s a form of love made visible, day after day.
One Generation Further
For the young parents who come through our programs, the work doesn’t stop with one child. Pregnant and parenting teens learn to apply these same TBRI principles with their own children — practicing gentle discipline, building attachment, and interrupting cycles that started long before they were born. That’s what it looks like to extend hope across a generation.
A Vocabulary for Every Relationship
A child who leaves Sunny Glen carrying these 10 values doesn’t just carry skills. They carry a framework for every relationship they’ll ever have — with friends, partners, their own children someday. Weekly church services and Bible studies reinforce what staff model all week: that they are known, loved, and worthy of good things. That’s what our ministries and services are built around.
The Trust That Changes Everything
Trust-based relational intervention values for kids aren’t about producing well-behaved children. They’re about forming people who know how to be in relationship — with others, with themselves, and with God. At Sunny Glen, that work has been happening since 1936. More than 25,000 children have passed through and carried something forward. The tools have deepened. The belief behind them hasn’t moved.
If you want to be part of this work, we’d love to hear from you. Get involved as a volunteer, make a donation to support a child’s healing, or contact the team to learn more.
What are trust-based relational intervention values for kids?
Trust-based relational intervention values for kids are 10 principles — including Be Gentle and Kind, Use Your Words, and Make Good Choices — taught through daily practice at Sunny Glen. They give children from hard places a shared language for safe, healthy relationships with the adults and peers around them.
How does Sunny Glen use TBRI across its programs?
TBRI isn’t limited to therapy sessions. At Sunny Glen, every staff member is trained in the model and uses it throughout the day — in conversations, corrections, and ordinary moments. It also shapes how we work with young parents, counseling clients, and youth in our supported independent living program.
Does a child have to be religious to benefit from this approach?
No. The values themselves are practical and relational. At the same time, our faith shapes how we see every child — as someone made in God’s image, worthy of love and care. Weekly church services and Bible studies are part of campus life, but healing through relationship is the foundation regardless of a child’s background.
How long does it take for these values to take hold?
Every child moves at their own pace, and healing from early trauma takes time. Consistency is key. When children experience the same values practiced by every adult around them, day after day, the nervous system slowly begins to trust that this is how the world works. Small moments of change add up to something lasting.
How can I support the children at Sunny Glen?
There are several ways to get involved. You can volunteer your time, make a financial gift, or simply spread the word about the work being done. Every form of support helps a child experience something they may never have had: a community that shows up, stays, and believes in them.