Resources
The Transformational Power of Story
With RiverCross, story is where the journey begins. We produce and use world-class audio dramas that anchor every Training and every Club shaping communities of care where children thrive.
Our audio dramas don’t shy away from the difficult realities faced by children growing up in adversity. Instead, they tell the truth with honesty and hope.
Each audio drama is a full-cast production with actors, music and sound design – created specifically for listening. The result is an immersive, story-rich experience, like a movie for your ears, that feels safe and deeply relatable.
Through these stories, listeners—both adults and children—feel seen. Shame is lifted as they realize they are not alone. Where they once carried blame, they come to say, “It wasn’t my fault.”
They come to see Jesus as the friend who walks with them in their pain, binds up their broken hearts, and sets them free.
When people enter the story, hearts open. Story engages the imagination, awakens empathy, and helps faith and hope take root.
How RiverCross Uses Story
Every training session and every RiverCross Club begins with an episode of an audio drama. These stories are embedded with best practices of trauma-informed care and saturated with the hope of the gospel.
How it Works in Real Life
A group, whether adults in a RiverCross Training or youth in a RiverCross Club, listen to an episode together. Then a Facilitator leads games, activities, and discussions that help them connect the story to their own lives.
Story-first training helps caregivers learn child protection, trauma-informed care, and how to hold healing conversations, even about subjects that are culturally sensitive or painful, like abuse, exploitation, and practices that may be culturally acceptable, but are harmful for children.
In RiverCross Clubs, children respond to the stories through activities – disclosing trauma safely, advocating for themselves and peers, learning skills to increase their safety, and coming to see themselves as Jesus sees them: loved, treasured, and never alone.
Why Story is Safe
Stories create emotional distance that makes hard topics approachable. Listeners can talk about a character’s fear, loss, or hope long before they are ready to name their own.
Story lowers defenses, reduces shame, and opens the heart – allowing healing conversations to begin.
For many caregivers and children, when they listen to these stories this is the first time they have felt seen, understood, and safe enough to share their own.
Story is where the RiverCross journey begins – opening doors for training, guiding RiverCross Clubs, and shaping communities where children are treasured.
About RiverCross Audio Dramas
RiverCross audio dramas combine trauma-informed care principles with rich, faith-rooted storytelling. Each series invites listeners into characters’ journeys from trauma to healing—illuminating how God brings beauty from brokenness.
Bridge to Freedom
This story follows three siblings—Amari, Hasana, and Nala—as they face loss, fear, and vulnerability after the death of their parents. Guided by a wise teacher and a compassionate doctor, they discover healing, resilience, and faith in Christ’s redeeming love.
Available in English, Swahili, and Shona.
Jabota Bridge
This audio drama tells the story of youth—Salem, Luca, Matthew, and their friends—torn apart by war. Some are abducted as child soldiers; others flee as refugees. In their struggle to survive and rebuild, they encounter grief, loss, and ultimately the sustaining presence of God.
Available in English.
Stories in Development
New dramas are in development that reflect the lived realities of children across Africa: life in the slums and on the streets, substance abuse, trafficking, natural disasters, disability, food insecurity, early marriage, and more.
Each story is grounded in local experience and anchored in the hope of the Gospel.
“We serve vulnerable children, many of whom have had traumatic experiences. Bridge to Freedom is an answered prayer—bringing hope and resilience for them.”
—Child Development Worker, Compassion International, Kenya
Research-Backed Impact
Independent evaluations confirm what we’ve seen firsthand: story-based learning transforms lives.
Caregivers retain knowledge longer, grow in empathy, and change behavior more effectively than through lecture- or workbook-based training.
An independent study by the University of Kentucky evaluated one of RiverCross’s early audio dramas and found that this story-based approach significantly outperformed traditional lecture-style training in changing caregivers’ attitudes and behaviors toward child protection.
This evidence-informed, research-validated model makes RiverCross a low-cost, scalable, and culturally adaptable solution for Christian trauma care that works in oral and cross-cultural settings.
Research reference: “Transformative Learning through Oral Narrative in a Participatory Environment,” University of Kentucky, 2022.
About RiverCross Training Resources
Every RiverCross audio drama is accompanied by a suite of training tools that help Trainers equip Facilitators and Facilitators lead RiverCross Clubs with confidence.
Companion resources include:
– Trainer’s Guide — for RiverCross Trainers to equip Facilitators.
– Facilitator’s Guide — for those preparing to lead RiverCross Clubs.
– Club Guide — a hands-on manual for launching and leading RiverCross Clubs.
– Club Journal — a reflective companion for children and youth in RiverCross Clubs.
These tools empower people to turn story into transformation—helping caregivers build a world where every child is treasured in their community.
Proven, Portable, and Powerful
Audio reaches where video cannot—it’s affordable, accessible, and deeply contextual.
Listeners imagine their own landscapes—markets, farms, and city streets—making every story local and personal. And because audio travels easily from village to village, RiverCross stories can bring hope anywhere there’s a phone, laptop, or Bluetooth speaker—or wherever a small group can gather.
Why audio works:
Cost: Far more affordable than comparable video production.
Portability: Easy to share and use in even the most remote settings.
Contextualization: Engages the imagination, allowing each community to picture their own world in the story.
A Growing Movement of Healing Across Africa
From the first RiverCross workshops in Zambia to partnerships across 11+ African nations, RiverCross Resources are equipping caregivers to help children heal through the power of story and the presence of Christ.