March 14, 2020 “On the day my grandmother caught him fondling me, I was wearing my favorite pink cotton dress. Now pink is a trigger for me.” WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Roz Overstreet-Gonzalez lived a typical life in San Bernardino, Calif., with her parents and two siblings. She played sports, learned the piano, and was...
Tag: surviving trauma
Surviving Trauma: COVID-19 Deaths Only One Trauma Young People of Color Face
BY SAMARAH BENTLEYURBAN HEALTH MEDIA PROJECTNEW ORLEANS -- In one week, a patient of New Orleans clinical psychologist Dr. Baraka Perez lost three family members to COVID-19: Her father, brother and a nephew. "I'm seeing more of that than I care to," said Perez, who for 20 years has been helping children, adolescents and their...
Surviving And Thriving Despite Trauma
Series of stories reported and written by high school students from around the country For one little girl, sexual assaults changed her life until she took control Surviving Trauma: COVID-19 Deaths Only One Trauma Young People of Color Face Surviving Trauma: She Walks In Her Truth: Washington Woman Works to Help Other LGBTQ+ People...
Surviving Trauma: She Walks In Her Truth: Washington Woman Works to Help Other LGBTQ+ People of Color
BY VANESSA FALCON URBAN HEALTH MEDIA PROJECT WASHINGTON, D.C. — Heidi Ellis, 36, was taught to love reading, to love her culture, and to love herself. Ellis, who identifies as lesbian and came out at the age of 19, knows she was lucky — lucky to be loved for who she is. Still, as...
Surviving Trauma: Intergenerational Violence Affects Many in Black Community
BY AJMAANIE ANDRE URBAN HEALTH MEDIA PROJECT MIAMI – Charlene Bouie felt different from other children from an early age. It was decades, though, before she fully understood why: She’d been sexually abused, multiple times, by the time she was a young teenager. Then as an adult, she was physically and verbally abused by...
Surviving Trauma: Separating Siblings in Foster Care Can Be Cruel
BY IJEOMA OKERE URBAN HEALTH MEDIA PROJECT WASHINGTON, D.C. — Growing up in the city’s foster care system, Lisa Cohen bounced between 13 different families over 19 years. Now 52 and a former boxing champion and motivational speaker in northwest Washington, D.C., Cohen never had a birthday party as a child, and has almost...
Surviving Trauma: Domestic Abuse, Dulos Killing Motivate Mothers’ Political Activism
BY GILLIAN LAMPHERE and SAMANTHA ROSENGARD URBAN HEALTH MEDIA PROJECT GREENWICH, CONN. – It was only in looking back that the southern Connecticut mother of two saw all the red flags in her marriage: her husband criticized her looks, their childrens’ looks, how she cleaned the house, even her cooking. He’d stand over her,...
Surviving Trauma: Natural Disasters Leave Mark Years Later on Survivors
BY ANURA SHARMA URBAN HEALTH MEDIA PROJECT MIAMI — Caio Lopes was a high school student in 2005 in Palm Beach County when Hurricane Wilma hammered South Florida on October 24. The Category 3 storm packed winds of 120 miles per hour when it made landfall in Cape Romano, about 113 miles from Lopes’s...
Surviving Trauma: Even Years Later, Trauma from Parkland Shooting Translates to Action
BY MICHELLE MAIRENA URBAN HEALTH MEDIA PROJECT Twitter: @michemairena MIAMI — It was Logan Rubenstein’s first week of freshman year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. During math class, there was a fire alarm. None of his classmates moved from their seats. Then a student started to cry. It was only...
Surviving Trauma: Miami Resident Leans on Faith to Cope With Multiple COVID-19 Deaths
BY DANIEL GONZALEZ III URBAN HEALTH MEDIA PROJECT MIAMI — Over just a few months during the pandemic, Elbert Waters, 66, of Miami Lakes, lost five loved ones to COVID-19. First it was his cousin, a man in his early 70’s who fell ill at the height of the hospitalizations in New York City...