Forming Healthy Helping Relationships

Forging trusting relationships with newcomer populations fosters safety, belonging, and empowerment, enabling them to share their stories, access support, and navigate their new lives with confidence and hope. Our mission is to support clients on their journey toward self-sufficiency. In doing so, we encourage volunteers to develop healthy helping relationships that set strong boundaries for volunteers and encourage self-determination for clients. Finding the right balance can be very challenging!

Below are some overview resources to aid in the relationship-building process and ways to dive deeper into learning more about boundary setting and healthy helping relationships. We start with a summary of a past Refugee and Immigrant Volunteer Summit (RAIVS) session “Components of a Healthy Helping Relationship” led by ReEstablish Richmond Director of Client Engagement, Helen Rai.  

Healthy Helping Relationship Overview: 

  • Empowerment Theory- helping guide people toward building autonomy, having a clear-eyed view of the systems and oppression that many marginalized communities face, and seeking to empower folks to gain personal, interpersonal, and political power to better their own lives. 

  • A healthy helping relationship involves a meaningful role that centers compassion, empathy, encouragement, and collaboration with folks who are supporting themselves on their way to self-sufficiency and integration.  Set boundaries are put in place to avoid paternalization, dependency, enabling, and burnout.  

  • It requires “helpers” to ask tough examining questions about their motivations, limits, and cultural biases- “Do you truly believe people have the potential to do for themselves? Do you believe people should have self-determination?” 

Establishing Good Boundaries: 

  • Boundaries for individuals and ReEstablish Richmond around what is acceptable in supporting clients- relates to all types of boundaries: self-disclosure, location, time, material (gifts, financial support requests), physical tough, intellectual, emotional, sexual, etc.  

  • Consider differing cultural understandings and the individual personality and situation of a client or volunteer role.  

  • Try to avoid falling into a savior-victim mindset where volunteers have all the resources to “save” a “helpless” client. Instead shift toward a coach-creator mindset, where volunteers are encouraging brainstormers helping clients see the possibilities and resources they have themselves to overcome an obstacle.  

Best practices: 

  • Active Listening: More than just hearing words—it requires fully engaging with the client’s message, asking clarifying questions, and responding appropriately. Encourages trust and openness, allowing clients to feel truly heard. 

  • Empathy- The ability to understand and validate a client’s emotions without judgment. Helps create a supportive environment where clients feel safe to share their concerns. 

  • Communication: Clear and respectful communication is essential for building rapport and avoiding misunderstandings. Involves verbal and nonverbal cues, using culturally sensitive language, and adapting communication styles based on client needs. Note- US culture has many “soft” understandings of phrases (ex: we will have to see about that, maybe this could work, see you later, etc.) that can be easily misunderstood. Be clear, “I am not sure, but I will try to find out. I cannot do that, I am sorry. This will not work because of XX. Etc. 

  • Problem-Solving: Supporting clients in identifying challenges, setting realistic goals, and exploring potential solutions. Encourages independence and self-sufficiency rather than creating dependency on the helper. Every client is different, requiring flexibility in approach and a willingness to adjust strategies based on feedback and outcomes. 

Other Videos to support in this area:

TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE

Understanding trauma-informed care is crucial when working with refugees and immigrant populations, acknowledging their vulnerability to trauma, and prioritizing safety, respect, and empowerment. This approach fosters trust and resilience, mitigating re-traumatization risks and promoting resiliency. Here are resources that provide more context on the importance of trauma-informed care and how to prioritize this model in your interactions with clients.

Below are a few resources to dive into trauma informed care:

Articles

Children + Families

Videos: