Lifelong Heroes: Meet The Vets Who Rebuild Communities After Disasters

To combat emotional distress that many students are facing, schools across the nation are implementing mock funerals, allowing students to figuratively "bury their pain." Although issues at focus range from drunk driving, to poor test scores to peer violence, the overarching goal is to make sure that students feel that they're being heard by the adults that surround them.

Young adults who decide to abandon their cloistered Jewish communities have only one another to help them navigate the alternate reality of modern-day New York. 'Footsteps', is a nonprofit organization that brings formerly ultra-orthodox people together to talk and learn to navigate their new worlds, while also bringing in social workers and providing GED classes. For individuals leaving their families, life can be extremely difficult, but this group seeks to create a more positive transition to the secular world.

Milwaukee’s 414LIFE program is treating violence like a public health issue, seeking to interrupt and prevent its spread. The pilot program is a collaboration between the city’s Office of Violence Prevention, local nonprofits, and hospitals and healthcare networks. The initiative works closely with victims of violence to make sure they have the support and resources they need to prevent violent retaliation and employs people who are from the communities they’re responding to in an effort to take a hyper-local response.

Two women travel on a journey seeking to heal pain through forgiveness with the help of a program in Baltimore that brings together mothers who have lost sons to violence. One woman's son was murdered and the other woman's son is standing trial for that crime. This article shows how complex and long such a process can be and doesn't sugarcoat the difficulty of reconciliation.

Healing Hurt People (HHP), the program that helped save his life, now employs men like Jermaine McCorey - men who used to be a part of a violent life on the streets of Philadelphia - to reach out to boys and young men in the emergency department and help get them through empathy and personalized support. HHP's goal is to help young people recognize the role trauma has played in shaping their lives, to respect and honor their experience and to help them avoid fueling the cycle of violence.

The Knox County Aktion Club gives adults with disabilities a community where they can connect with others and grow through volunteer opportunities. For 15 years, the group has helped members develop greater independence and confidence, as well as leadership and problem-solving skills. There are currently about 600 Aktion Club members throughout the state, and more than 12,000 members worldwide, spread between 15 countries.

Freed from prison after serving at least 15 years, often much longer, for crimes committed when they were teens, a group of men holds twice-monthly Zoom meetings to lend structure and peer support to their lives during a time when COVID-19 restrictions foreclose other face-to-face meetings. Under Washington, D.C.’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, 42 men have been released. At least 22 of them meet regularly to share leads on possible jobs, discuss their frustrations, and encourage each other to stay focused on the positive.

In Minnesota, volunteer chaplains are attending community events at the request of the participants to provide counsel and support to anyone who may be experiencing symptoms of trauma. Before attending any event to lend help, the volunteer "clergy, spiritual leaders and mental health leaders" first undergo a virtual cultural sensitivity and trauma training. During the events, the interfaith chaplains often perform volunteer duties, but also wear orange shirts to be easily identifiable for those who would like to share.

An organization aimed at providing peer support for gay black men living with HIV that started in Atlanta, Georgia has now gained an international following. Because the program is not federally funded, data can be difficult to gather; however, "self-reported data from its members including medication type and adherence, CD4 cell count, and demographic information" shows a significant increase in members adhering to their medical regimen.

Sometimes just having someone to talk to can help those who are suffering from depression. The Friendship Bench program in NYC borrows an idea from Harare, Zimbabwe, where healthcare workers—affectionately called Grannies—sit and consult with patients on benches outside of healthcare clinics. The Grannies help people discuss their issues and have had a measurably positive impact on those they’ve reached. In New York, the Friendship Benches connect individuals to peer mentors willing to listen across the city.