Ep. 18: Trauma-sensitive yoga effective with LGBTQ+ youth
Justice In Action
Sexual assault, bullying and harassment are traumatic for all survivors of any age. Transgender and non-binary youth are at high risk for encountering these experiences, which can lead to the development of complex trauma that may include a lack of trust in other people and even estrangement from their own bodies. About half of all transgender or non-binary youth have experienced sexual assault. As a result, many experience anxiety and depression, including suicidal thoughts, and are more likely than their cis-gender peers to live with a sense of...
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Ep. 17: Substance Use Recovery
Justice In Action
Guiding our clients toward recovery from substance use disorder The opioid epidemic has increased the demand for effective recovery services, and Justice Resource Institute’s Mary Chao is leading the organization’s training program for clinicians and other staff members to aid them in helping clients recover. Chao has been with JRI for nine years and works with the agency’s health, training and community-based services divisions, developing and coordinating substance use programming throughout the agency. She works closely with clients ages 12 to 24 and the JRI clinicians who help them...
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Ep. 16: Mental Heath Treatment for Clients with Developmental Differences
Justice In Action
Mental health clinicians are often reluctant to treat people who have intellectual and developmental differences (IDDs) for fear of doing something that could worsen rather than improve the client’s condition. In this episode of Justice in Action, two JRI clinicians, Dr. Jacquelyn Kraps, Metrowest Area Director and Clinical Director of Outpatient Services, and Bailey McCombs, Licensed Metal Health Counselor and Expressive Arts Therapist, talk about the rewards and challenges of working with children with a range of differences, from autism spectrum disorder to chromosomal differences,...
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Ep. 15: Data and research improve treatment of complex trauma
Justice In Action
Few social service agencies are as committed as JRI to improving treatment through research and data. In today’s episode of Justice in Action, we talk to Hilary Hodgdon, Research Director at Justice Resource Institute, and Lia Martin, Senior Associate Director of Quality Management. Together, they are part of a data and research division that is unusual among social service agencies for its size and scope. JRI clients suffer from complex trauma. On average, a child or adolescent seeing a JRI therapist has experienced three different types of trauma, such as neglect, physical abuse or...
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Ep. 14: Courageous Conversations
Justice In Action
Staff of Justice Resource Institute don’t shy away from talking about tough issues like racial justice, immigration policy or vaccine hesitancy.
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Ep. 13: Covid-19 pandemic boosts need for foster homes
Justice In Action
More than 8,400 Massachusetts children are in foster care, and the need is growing as the financial and emotional strain of the Covid-19 pandemic and the state’s opioid crisis continue to take a toll on children and families.
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Ep. 12: Permanent Connections are Vital for a Child’s Success
Justice In Action
We all need the people in our lives who know us and care about us, who celebrate our successes and comfort us in hard times. These are the people we call when we get a new job, lock our keys in the car or are facing a big decision.
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Ep. 11: Children's Advocacy Center
Justice In Action
CAC mental health clinicians Brittannie Moroz and Jillian Allen shared CDC data stating one in four girls and one in 13 boys under age 18 suffer trauma as a result of child sexual abuse. Those children are some of the approximately 75,000 Bristol County children age 16 and younger be-lieved to have suffered trauma from abuse, violence, addiction in their homes or other causes of childhood trauma.
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Ep. 10: Trauma-sensitive yoga w/ Jennifer Turner
Justice In Action
Trauma-sensitive yoga helps sufferers use their bodies to heal their spirits
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Ep. 9: The Wounded Healer
Justice In Action
Helping the healer when their work unearths old symptoms of trauma
info_outlineJustice Resource Institute (JRI) has teamed up with William James College, New England’s largest school of psychology, to create an innovative degree completion program for JRI staff.
Marc Abelard, director of the Behavioral Health Service Corps, director of the Bachelor in Psychology & Human Services Completion Program and co-director of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative at William James; Ed Powell, JRI vice president of community engagement and executive director at STRIVE Boston, and Tonya Morris, a survivor mentor and training specialist with JRI’s My Life My Choice and a recent graduate of William James College, talk about the program and the unusual level of support it provides for students.
Morris, who works with young victims of abuse, sex trafficking and other traumas, was one of four JRI employees to earn a bachelor’s degree in May as part of the program’s first graduating class. A single mother who works full time, Morris said she was thrilled at the opportunity to complete her education, but uneasy about entering the classroom again after decades away. Support from JRI and William James College was key to achieving her goal and becoming effective in working with her clients.
“If I didn’t get what I got from William James College I would have not been able to handle the cases I’m handling now,” she said. She plans to tackle her master’s degree next.
Money and time are the main barriers for many when returning to school. Abelard says the program addresses both. Generous reimbursements from JRI and William James scholarships mean JRI employees can earn a degree at no cost to them. In addition, JRI provides employees the flexibility they need to fit classes and studying into lives filled with work and family obligations, while William James College offers the hands-on academic support to ensure they succeed.
Powell said the program encourages entry level staff members to see their work at JRI as a career, not just a job. Because entry level workers are often people of color, the program also helps address issues of racial equity and structural racism, while ensuring that the JRI staff reflect the diversity of the clients they serve.
Training this workforce has become more critical as baby boomers retire and leave Massachusetts with a severe shortage of social service professionals. The William James College program enables JRI to train and retain employees of the future. In fact, through the Boston STRIVE program that Powell directs, someone without a high school degree could earn a GED, get hired by JRI, use a tuition reimbursement program to earn an associate’s degree at a community college and then go onto William James for a bachelor’s and master’s.
“By giving folks the education they need, it gives us a chance to elevate people who otherwise might not have had this opportunity,” he said.